A Brilliant Idea If you read our most recent post you know that right now we are travelling cross country toward our new home in western New York. So far the journey has been awesome! We are spending the night in the middle of Nebraska, and are just over halfway there. So far so good, and we are enjoying the journey. We have seen parts of the country that we've never seen, and we have loads of … [Read more...]
July 28, 2014 4 Comments
July 24, 2014 2 Comments
Farewell Sweet Newberg
You probably know by now that we are moving across the country. As you all read this, we're on the road. This week was an endless stream of goodbyes and tears. It's a wonderful thing to love a place so much that it's this hard to leave it. Jon and I came to college here 10 and 8 years ago respectively. At first Newberg didn't exist outside of campus. Now we know this town so well we can't remember … [Read more...]
July 23, 2014 9 Comments
Why We Love Talking To Young People About Money
This week we were fortunate to be presenting at a workshop centered on youth and young adults during our denomination's annual gathering. This put a bunch of 6th-12th graders and some 20-somethings in a classroom with the INTENTION of listening to us talk about finances. We were pretty stoked. Now why do we love talking to young people about money? Because it's hopeful! We're so anti doom and … [Read more...]
July 21, 2014 6 Comments
Our Top 5 Posts of All Time
Blogging is eye opening in that we often post certain articles we think will do really well and then they get no views, while others we have low expectations for sky rocket. We thought on this ever-so-busy week of our lives we'd compile a list of our top 5 blog posts for you. Do they surprise you? I'll do them in reverse order of course. 5. Why We Never Pay for Textbooks or Birthday … [Read more...]
July 18, 2014 8 Comments
GRAND-Don’t Be a Jerk
Generosity This week I got a reminder of why you should be generous with people around you, especially if you don't know their circumstances. One of my moving tasks this week was to cancel our gym membership, something I wasn't looking forward to. Something you should know about gym membership contracts, they are more binding than most mortgage agreements. When I was reading ours over I found out … [Read more...]
July 16, 2014 2 Comments
A Diagram of Financial Maturity
Have you ever wanted to instill in your children some 'financial maturity?' Have you ever wondered if you're financially mature, what that means or how you can get there? As Jon and I have prepared for a workshop we're leading next week on money in early adulthood, we found that we came back to a few financial skills that are critical to a young person's understanding of personal finance. We … [Read more...]
July 14, 2014 11 Comments
Why Most Subscription Services Are Ridiculous
A New Trend You may have noticed a new consumer trend gaining popularity right now, the monthly subscription service. You can get a monthly subscription for everything as varied as your monthly groceries, your wardrobe, to geek gear (one I actually considered). In fact I stumbled onto a list from buzzfeed.com of 13 subscription services for everyone you know. Here are some of the more interesting … [Read more...]
July 11, 2014 2 Comments
GRAND – Inching Closer to Leaving
Generosity I can't even explain how generous those around us are being in our final weeks. Sometimes saying good bye can be exhausting. We love this community and as we prepare to leave it we are consistently reminded of how many people we're leaving behind. Family is a part of this picture, our church community, friends from college and even random people I've connected with just from living in … [Read more...]
July 9, 2014 6 Comments
How To Reach Your Financial Goals
It seems a lot of our friends and family know what their financial goals are. Even if these goals are general "Buy a house" or "Save more for retirement" they definitely have them and would like to move in the right direction. The tricky thing about knowing how to reach your financial goals is developing a rhythm that keeps you both consistent and working at those goals from multiple … [Read more...]
July 7, 2014
Lending Money to Family Members—is it Ever a Good Idea?
The following is a guest post about Lending Money to Family from Melanie Finkle, a friend and personal finance advisor. It’s harder than ever for young adults to save and get ahead in our current economy. Modest incomes and college loans make it tough to assemble enough cash to purchase a car or make a down payment on a house. It doesn’t help that credit standards have tightened, putting bank … [Read more...]
