Freedom Accounts, Rainy Day Funds, Sinking Funds Oh My!

What’s a Freedom Account? What’s a Rainy Day Fund? What’s a Sinking Fund?
They’re all the same thing. Mary Hunt coined the phrase Freedom Account, I (probably did definitely didn’t) coin the phrase Rainy Day Fund. I’m not sure who got Sinking Fund. Had I known about Mary Hunt’s Freedom Accounts before making [...]

How You Never Get Anything Done (But Do it Perfectly!)

Jonathan over at MyMoneyBlog had a great article about how the concept of Kaizen ties in to personal finance. According to Wikipedia:
a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life.
I couldn’t help but notice something Jonathan mentioned regarding spending habits:
If you want to start a budget, why not track your [...]

Make Gas Prices Less Taxing

How would you like to make your car get 220 miles to the gallon instead of 20? Or would you prefer, instead, to only pay $0.36 per gallon of gas? How about this: If your car gets good enough mileage then you get paid for putting gas in the car instead of paying? All of [...]

Happy Father’s Day

This post was inspired by JD’s Father’s Day Post at Get Rich Slowly.
My mother and father are both currently visiting Jerusalem. They left on Thursday and won’t be back for two weeks. My mom asked each of the (six) kids to write something for our dad that she now has probably given to [...]

Avoid The Summer Spending Itch: 8 Ideas for Frugal Family Fun

For our family, discretionary time has proven to be the most temptation-laden for superfluous spending. Perhaps it’s boredom that breeds the itch to eat out, shop, and entertain ourselves in similarly costly ways? Whatever the cause, our frugal fortitude seems to shrivel on the weekends and when find ourselves with excessive free time. [...]

You’re Not a Budgeter. You’re an Air Traffic Controller.

If my mission in life is to get the world on a budget, then I need to convince people that they shouldn’t hate budgeting. In order to do that, I have to figure out why they hate it in the first place. I’ve come to the conclusion that people hate budgeting because it [...]

Spotlight: Are We Crazy? (I love this story)

My father is also a financial advisor. About 12 years ago he had a couple in their early thirties come into his office. They owned a business and were now at the point where they wanted to start saving and planning for their future. They were in the process of finding a financial advisor that [...]

Who Is Really Hurt When We Tax the “Rich”

It is unfathomable to me, in the midst of an economy that is wavering, to hear the presidential candidates talking about tax increases! How can anyone who looks at things from a rational, logical perspective think that increasing our taxes is going to help? Of course, I know that they want to give an economic [...]

It’s Good To Have Goals

For the first several years of our marriage, my husband nagged, what felt like fortnightly, “we need to sit down and make some financial goals.” His suggestion was met with a habitual eye roll, (because I’m stubborn and snarky,) but also because I’m a financial first-grader in many regards and didn’t fully understand what [...]

Spotlight: They Are On Their Way (I’m Proud of These Guys)

I have a young married couple as clients with whom I love to meet. They are in their late 20’s / early 30’s. Both went to college to become teachers and both taught in local elementary schools. You might guess that they don’t have large sums of money to invest. You might also guess that [...]

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This is The Wallet. My name is Jesse Mecham, founder of YNAB. Here I focus on the YNAB methodology, software, personal finance, and more.

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