April 2017 - Northern Expenditure

Hello Friends! Today’s Northern Expression starts with a pretty famous Jonathan Swift quote, but we recently happened upon Lord Bolingbroke’s response and we loved the two together as a conversation so here you go:

“A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.” – Jonathan Swift (in a letter to Lord Bolingbroke)

Lord Bolingbroke’s response: “A wise man should take care how he lets money get too much into his head, for it would most assuredly descend to the heart.”

I wonder why we don’t hear Lord Bolingbroke’s response as much as Swift’s quote because it’s basically the same sentiment with clarification. If you spend too much time thinking about money, it becomes the obsession and cannot be separated from your heart. It is a reminder that money is a tool. It is not the goal.

Happy Friday, friends.

Love, Maggie

Why I Don’t Shop For Clothes (But am Trying!)

By MaggieBanks

On April 26, 2017

In About the Banks

I hate shopping. Especially for clothes. Part of me wishes I was that person that could walk into a store and want ALL THE THINGS! Before moving to Alaska, thrift stores were my jam. Everything I owned was from a thrift store. It was my style, it was cheap, and if it got destroyed, I wasn’t that worried about it. Also, I could walk into the thrift store and look at my size on the rack. When the rack ended, I was done.

Now that I live in Alaska (where the thrift stores are both expensive and terrible), I’ve been forced into buying clothes from stores like regular people. It’s awful.

Clothes are Expensive!

I hear the argument that you should just buy really well made clothes and they’ll last forever. It’s a sane argument. But what if you have 3 crazy kids, you spend most of your year walking through snow, your shirts always manage to get holes in the front, and you are incapable of eating chocolate without having pieces melt into your shirt?* Well, then your argument is crazy. Then I put on said shirt and feel like I can’t live my life. I can’t accidentally rub up against my car (with its inch-thick dirt in the winter and spring). I can’t touch my children. I can’t go outside.

A 2017 Earth Day Checkup

By MaggieBanks

On April 24, 2017

In About the Banks

Earth Day was this weekend. To celebrate, Florin’s school passed out garbage bags to kick off next week’s city-wide clean up (my favorite time of year… all the trash that was hiding in all that snow gets picked up!). Each year, I perform a personal Earth Day Checkup. We could all be doing better protecting the environment, but every year, I like to celebrate the things I am doing, note my own improvements, and come up with something I can improve upon.

Earth Day Checkup: The Good

Why Are We Afraid of Boring?

By MaggieBanks

On April 19, 2017

In Personal Finance

Everyone lives their lives trying to not be boring. They don’t want to live like everyone else. They don’t want to seem average. People prove they’re not boring by buying nice houses, interesting cars, fashionable clothes. “I couldn’t possibly be boring. Just LOOK at me!” In this cycle of trying to prove we’re not boring, we also expect boring answers to be wrong.

The Boring Answers are the Best Ones

People want shortcuts. They want to hear the anecdotes and not the research. Everyone wants to be in shape and everyone wants to be rich. Why do you think the weight loss and financial industries are so large? We want a pill or a get-rich scheme. Do you know how to get in shape? You exercise. You actually work the muscles you want to be strong. Do you know how to get rich? You save money. You let money grow by not touching it.

Anecdotes vs. Research (and the benefits of each)

By MaggieBanks

On April 17, 2017

In Research Highlights

As a researcher, it is important to me that you know the difference between anecdotes and data (the stuff produced through primary research).

What is Research?

This is a broad question that has many different facets, I realize. And I could bore you with the specifics of randomized controlled trials vs. observational studies, but our purposes here, I consider data/research to be something that has been tested. Many subjects have been involved and conclusions have been drawn. Research is testing whether defaulting workers into contributing to retirement funds actually increases earnings and then finding out that it does.

The conclusions drawn from research mean that they’ve been tried and tested. Many, many people save way more money into retirement plans if you default them into contributing in the first place. What do we do with this information? If you default your contributions, you may not end up clawing them back at all!

Northern Expressions: Money without brains is always dangerous

By MaggieBanks

On April 14, 2017

In Northern Expressions

Hello fellow money nerds. Today’s quote comes from the very famous book by Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich.

“Money without brains is always dangerous. Properly used, it is the most important essential of civilization.”

Money plus brains equals nearly endless opportunity! Use your brains. Use your resources. And get out there and make the world wonderful!

Happy weekend!

Love, Maggie

A Simple, Month-Ahead Elimination Budget

By MaggieBanks

On April 12, 2017

In Saving Money

Mr. T and I were married in the midst of college. We were happiness-rich, but cash poor. We were both lucky to not be in debt because we were both given some assistance from our parents for college. After we were married, we combined our meager bank accounts and started an elimination budget.

We both worked hourly as custodians for our college football team cleaning the locker rooms and the coaches’ offices between 9:30PM and 1AM. Perks: football games were way more engaging because we knew the players intimately though we never met them (“the player that’s got that cute letter from a 6-year-old fan on his locker board has the ball!”). We also got random things out of the trash, like a barely-worn pair of shoes and a dozen tickets to the nearby waterpark. Also, we got to work together and we got a slight pay increase for working nights. Downsides: It was very late and we were tired. We got weekly wheatgrass shots at Jamba Juice to get us through.

The Simple Elimination Budget

How “Make More Money” is Like a Video Game

By MaggieBanks

On April 10, 2017

In Saving Money

Quick call to action: I’m running an awesome research project and need your help. I need as many responses as possible. Go take the survey. It won’t take long. Thanks so much! Do it for science!

Maybe you’re like me. You read all these amazing posts about how the solution to your problem is simple. Make more money. And then you think: “Yeah, wouldn’t that be great?!” The posts say: “Don’t worry. It’s easy. Start a blog. Make an extra $90,000/year” Or “just start an e-commerce business and watch the sales replace your day job income in no time!” Now, as a consistent blogger of nearly 2 years that has made a grand total of less than $400 on this blog (want to increase that? Sign up for Personal Capital with my affiliate link. The service is free. And awesome. I promise), and as someone that runs an Etsy shop with 2 total sales (I won’t pitch that to you as well. You’re welcome), let me tell you that I finally figured it out!

There are levels to the game Make More Money

March 2017 Plan Update

By MaggieBanks

On April 3, 2017

In Plan Updates

March 2017 has been an awesome month! We traveled to Nebraska and Texas to see my sister and Mr. T’s brother and the kids got to play with cousins. We went to museums, parks, zoos, and just generally had a great time. A week after we got back from our trip, school was canceled here in Anchorage because we got nearly a foot of snow on top of all of the break-up ice (not even April Fooling you)!

We’re still discussing the best town to live in if you want to weigh in!

The Numbers:

Want to know how easy it is for us to write these every month? I literally just log into my Personal Capital and revel in all the numbers being in one place. Do you like checking numbers? Do you like graphics? Do you like playing with calculators like retirement calculators and how much your fees are costing you? Then, you should obviously use my affiliate link to Sign up here to help yours truly speed toward financial independence! (I assumed bloggers pushed this because of the affiliate income until I started using it myself… worth the FREE pricetag! And Seriously Amazing.)

I think we’re officially a month ahead in finances between some major hustling in March and our tax return! (but then we went on vacation and so my April paydates will be much lower, so we’ll see if we can maintain it!)

Month: April 2017

Northern Expressions: How Close is Money to Your Heart?

Why I Don’t Shop For Clothes (But am Trying!)

Clothes are Expensive!

A 2017 Earth Day Checkup

Earth Day Checkup: The Good

Why Are We Afraid of Boring?

The Boring Answers are the Best Ones

Anecdotes vs. Research (and the benefits of each)

What is Research?

Northern Expressions: Money without brains is always dangerous

A Simple, Month-Ahead Elimination Budget

The Simple Elimination Budget

How “Make More Money” is Like a Video Game

There are levels to the game Make More Money

March 2017 Plan Update

The Numbers: