Financial Phrases Archives - Page 4 of 4

Are You a Saver or a Spender? The Why.

By MaggieBanks

On March 16, 2016

In Personal Finance

I had an interesting conversation with Penny last week. It went something like this:

Penny: McKinley is a saver. I’m a spender.
Me: What makes McKinley a saver and you a spender?
Penny: McKinley just saves all of his money. I buy things. Like my waterproof camera. Well, I guess I’m more of a saver, then a spender.
Me: What’s the point of McKinley saving his money? What is he going to do with it?
Penny: I don’t know. He just keeps it.
Me: Dad and I are savers. But do you know why we save money?
Penny: So we can go on vacations and dad doesn’t have to work until he’s old.
Me: Right. Money isn’t worth anything if it doesn’t have a purpose.

February 2016 Plan Update

By MaggieBanks

On March 2, 2016

In Plan Updates

I love the beginning of the month. It’s the time to sit down, figure out where we stand on the plan, and track the numbers! Overall, this was a great month at the Banks’ house. The most exciting news? Our post about putting your kids to work was featured on Rockstar Finance! Dreams do come true! February was spent touching everything in our house and getting rid of tons of stuff. We started with organizing our clothes, moved on to purging books, tackled the bathroom and kitchen organization (and found a million bag clips and hairbands!), and then worked our way through the rest of the house.

January 2016 Plan Update

By MaggieBanks

On February 1, 2016

In Plan Updates

We actually got some snow in January, which makes for a good winter, but then it all melted and we’re back to a slushy, wet, and icy January. Curse you global warming! We’ve settled back into life after Hawaii and started our major purging efforts in our home. We’ve completed everyone’s clothes, all the books in the house, and everything in my bedroom and under the bed! We delivered our first big trunk-full to Salvation Army and it felt great! For the next few Wednesdays, I’ll be documenting this journey starting this Wednesday with the process I took to get rid of half of my clothes!

December 2015 Plan Update

By MaggieBanks

On January 4, 2016

In Plan Updates

December was another lovely month and so very eventful. I finished up my semester-long ice skating class at the local university with my awesome skating performance (spoiler: I fell in the first two seconds). We finished up our largest project of the year: The Alaska State Energy Rebate Program and are looking forward to our $7700+ rebate check arriving sometime in February. I can honestly say that the thing I’m most excited about 2016 is that we are done with all the DIY home projects with a deadline! Mr. T and I attempted to sell some art at a holiday bazaar and hated it (upcoming post). But we weren’t too down because then we all got to get on a plane to Hawaii to celebrate my dad’s retirement in Hawaii for Christmas!

November 2015 Plan Update

By MaggieBanks

On December 2, 2015

In Plan Updates

We’re considering an “Ask Penny” segment on the blog. And may even include Florin if she can keep her answers somewhat on track. If this is something that would be interesting, submit your questions in the comment section. The series will be entirely reader-submitted questions. So, if we get enough interest/questions, we’ll do a post.

November is so great because it ends with Thanksgiving and introduces the Christmas season. I LOVE both of those holidays! We’ve been working hard on some artsy things to attempt to sell at a Christmas bazaar in December as well as finishing up our Energy Rebate to-do list. An update on the final numbers there will happen when we finish next month.

October 2015 Plan Update

By MaggieBanks

On November 2, 2015

In Plan Updates

Another month has come and gone and this one shot by fast. At the beginning of the month, we received our annual PFD checks, so this month’s numbers reflect that chunk of money! Mr. T and I reflected upon how we love it when people say “That looks like a lot of work” and we also participated in an awesome financial date night where we really pinned down our current goals. Also, this month, our family got to take a family trip out to the Midwest to see siblings, cousins, and for me to work in the office for a few days. We had an absolute blast swimming, partying, going to pumpkin patches, and eating. I even managed to grab myself a 33% raise while I was in the office! Hopefully that will go through next month. The weather here has turned colder and we got a couple inches of snow this weekend. Another lovely month for the Banks.

September 2015 Plan Update: PFD DAY!

By MaggieBanks

On October 2, 2015

In Plan Updates

Yesterday was PFD DAY! YAY! Unfortunately, this is a September update, so these numbers are true through September 30 and do not include that extra $10,000+ we just got… but tune in next month to see that money added to the numbers… (at least we can count on our mortgage numbers to improve… the market may be a different story).

September is fall around here (sick of moose-in-fall leaves headers?). The leaves are entirely orange and red and all over. The belugas migrated through and we got to sit on a rock and watch them swim around on Labor Day. The sun is much lower in the sky and the ground is kissed with frost in the mornings. We got our first snow this week. The darkness has returned, which means we’ve had some great Northern Lights shows out our window. We did not attend FinCon this year, but we participated from afar. This is also my birthday month. We celebrated with Mr. T making a three-layer fudge chunk cake with chocolate mousse in between layers and drenched in chocolate ganache on top. Oh, and homemade vanilla ice cream. It was absolutely divine and better than any purchase he could have made. Overall, it’s been a lovely month.

August 2015 Plan Update

By MaggieBanks

On September 2, 2015

In Plan Updates

We live very seasonally in Alaska. That’s just the lifestyle. The summers are glorious, but short, so any day where the weather isn’t terrible, we’re doing something outside. Our house and garage get all kinds of messy during the summer because our bikes are always out and ready to ride, we have a million projects going on, and we’re exploring this state as much as we can.

August began with the death of my Grandfather and a trip to Oregon for the funeral. Then Mr. T’s bike got stolen. Things turned around when mid-August brought a visitor to the Banks home. M, a dear friend from my youth, flew all the way from NYC to experience as much of Alaska as four days could provide. Our family drove all over, climbed glaciers, picked berries, explored gold mines, ate out, looked at furs, watched Beluga whales, hiked, used a hand-tram, and laughed a lot. It was a fabulous visit and we all had a great time.

School also started which means we now juggle trying to keep up our adventuring before winter comes while also trying to find a schedule. It’s a tricky transition, but things seem to be going fairly smoothly so far.

What Grandpa Taught Me About Money

By MaggieBanks

On August 10, 2015

In Personal Finance

My grandfather passed away last week. By the end, he was pretty angry to still be alive, so it was an expected, good change for him, but sad for the rest of us. I flew down to Portland this past weekend for the funeral.

My grandpa owned a printing store he had started with a partner of his in 1961. His obituary said “He retired 15 years ago” which simply means that at 72, he sold the company to his son. He still went to the office every single day until his mid-eighties and managed the payroll long after he “retired.”

I interviewed him once when I was in high school about how he picked his job. “Well, I was walking down the street on my own one day and I got hungry, and I walked into the first place I saw. And I’m still in the printing business. No one decided what they wanted to be, they just did what they could to get money.” (How’s that for a great financial phrase?)

July 2015 Plan Update

By MaggieBanks

On August 3, 2015

In Plan Updates

The Numbers:

Our investments are up to $62,800 and we now have $89,000 left on our mortgage. Again, we’re not upping the ante on paying that down until we finish the Alaska State Energy Rebate Program. So, that puts our grand total needed to reach early retirement at $526,200! I’m hoping to get that number down to at most $500,000 by the end of the year. This year’s PFD (estimated to be around $2000/person) should help get us there as well as our energy rebate check if we manage to get all the projects done by year’s end.

Tag: Financial Phrases