Finances and Family Review

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Him and tagged family, finances, links, parents

This morning Her and I were featured on the Chicago Public Radio show Eight Forty-Eight. If this is your first time here, welcome! The portion of our interview that was broadcasted included our thoughts on how we deal with the relationship of finances and family. Here are some of the posts that go into more detail on that delicate balance:

I talk about my parents (mom) at length in a few posts:

How Much Do You Tell Your Parents?

My Parents Keep Up With The Jonses

Raise your children to rely on them - Asian Culture And Finances

(Un)Happy Mother's Day

The situation with Her's parents is nicely summed up in this post: Proactive Parent Protection

...oh, and by the way, we're not debt free...but we do have a positive net worth these days. We don't have any revolving credit card debt, although we do still use them for the rewards but pay them off every month. We also still have about $50,000 of student loans to pay off, but ~$6,500 of that is at a 1.9% APR for life through a generous balance transfer, and the remainder of the balance is a federal loan with a low enough rate that we're not freaking out about it. This is a far cry from the ~$18,000 in credit card debt and ~$130,000 in student loan debt that we had when we started this blog.

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Public Radio Superstars, at Least on Monday

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Him and tagged media

Hey guys. Thank you for the response in our last post. Because of that response, and the relatively few people who unsubscribed (the nerve!), we're definitely going to be picking up the activity on this blog.

And remember a few years ago when we did a radio interview with Vocalo, then a fledgling radio station that seemed like an experiment in broadcasting and internet but turned out to be super awesome?

Well, some of that segment will be airing this coming Monday morning, February 22, on the WBEZ radio-news-magazine show 848! We'll be on between 9:05 and 9:20 am CST.

We're super excited because 848 is our favorite radio program to listen to when we're running late for work.

If you want to listen to the original interview in its entirety, check out the archive here.

(Hi Robin!)

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Checking In

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Him and tagged about, net_worth, welcome

Uh, hi.

It's been over 9 months since I've last posted here.

We're bankrupt.

Hahaha no we're not.

Much has happened since the last time I posted. I think we still have a positive net worth, but I need to add up the numbers to make sure. Who know how long that'll take.

We have not been totally silent on the financial front. We've been writing over at the Credit Union National Association blog for the past 3 years or so. Head on over there to read some of our stuff. Don't blame me for the crappy navigation.

Other than updating the magic net worth number, does anyone still have any interest in the financial events of our now married life?

Let me know. It's still not too late to resurrect this blog.

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Spending More For Kinder Food

Posted on November 11, 2009 by Her and tagged groceries

Our vacation to Australia has changed the way we eat. When we were in Australia we got to experience so much of our beautiful planet and see wildlife up close like never before. We snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, visited the rain forest, and spent the night on a free-range sheep farm. We ate local, fresh, organic produce and tried native fruits and vegetables. We dined on wild kangaroo and alligator. The connection to nature was overwhelming, and ever since we got back from Australia we have been paying more attention to what we eat.

We used to work hard on spending as little as possible on food. I coupon-clipped like a maniac and a lot of our meals came from boxes and cans. We wanted to make a change to a more local and sustainable diet. So Him did some research and found some local CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture). We signed up to obtain our meats and veggies directly from local farms. We are trying lots of vegetables that are new to us, like kale and dandelion greens. Our meat now comes from animals who live happy lives in fields with their calves. Our eggs come from free-range chickens. We buy locally produced milk in re-usable glass bottles.

Our diet is certainly more varied and nutritious than it used to be. It also costs a lot more. A six-month allotment of meat cost over $500, which was a big leap for a woman who is used to buying bulk bags of ground beef at $1.99/lb. The eggs are now about $5 a carton compared to the $2.59 I used to spend. The only saving grace is that the automatic food deliveries have reduced the amount of overpriced junk food we used to aimlessly toss into the grocery cart.

I am hopeful that our increased spending on food will translate into better health for us and our planet. Have you ever made an expensive change for a good cause?

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Sizing Up Engagement Rings

Posted on July 10, 2009 by Her and tagged wedding

I heard an interesting discussion the other day. A couple is planning to get engaged, and they have agreed to choose the engagement ring together. They both have lucrative careers ahead of them, but are currently in school. The school tuition is being financed by their parents. They set a budget for the ring, and found two options that fall within that budget. One ring is smaller and better quality, and the other is larger and poorer in quality (although not noticeably so). The woman wants the larger, flashier ring. The man is worried that the larger ring may appear to be too flashy and expensive in the eyes of his parents (who are, again, paying for his tuition) and therefore he is uncomfortable with that ring. He would prefer to select the smaller ring to avoid upsetting his parents.

Who do you think should have precedence in choosing the size of an engagement ring? The woman, who will wear it (hopefully) forever? Or the man, who will (in this scenario, anyway) pay for it?

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