FinCon Wrap-Up – Money Nerds Unite

fincon

If you’re unfamiliar with FinCon, it’s a personal finance conference that started in 2011 and is hosted in a different city each year. FinCon 2019 marks my third time attending this four-day event. Each year has had a different feel. My first FinCon was in …

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Debt by State Statistics: How Does Yours Rank?

debt by state

Debt comes in all shapes and sizes. There’s student debt, mortgage debt, and credit card debt, just to name a few. My family and I lived with consumer debt for years. Have you ever wondered how your debt or finances compare to others around you? …

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Could you Cover an Unexpected Bill in Cash?

cash

For many years our household could not cover an unexpected bill in cash. We simply did not have a plan for our money even though we had a large income. We were living paycheck to paycheck. This meant no cash savings. When an unexpected bill …

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Am I Frugal or Cheap?

Am I frugal or cheap is a question I recently asked myself. I consider a lot of things when trying to come to a conclusion. I considered my income, the things I am willing to pay for, and the things I am not.

After much thought, while mowing my lawn, I’m not sure of the answer. So I’d figure I’d open it up for discussion here on the blog in hopes to come to come to a final solution on my frugality or cheapness.

Before we do that, let me state my case. Here ‘s the overview of the three areas I consider when trying to answer the question myself.

Income

Now income, as a number I don’t believe can define someone as frugal or cheap but helps sets a baseline. The starting point for comparisons. Someone making twenty-five thousand dollars a year would have a different baseline than someone making seventy-five thousand a year for their level of frugality or cheapness.

Our family makes a six-figure income. So our baseline in pretty high. We do live in the Northeast. Long Island, New York to be exact, where property taxes are high, and general cost of living is above average. Here’s is one of my favorite memes to explain.

frugal or cheap

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Connecting More Offline in an Online World

Over the past couple of weeks, two of my favorite blogs were sold. There were various reason for their sale, but gaining back valuable time to dedicate to offline high priority items were a common goal for each site’s sales.

I can relate. It’s one of the main reasons I’ve moved to a once a week posting schedule here at Debt Discipline. It has been a fantastic move. Sure my overall numbers are down, and I haven’t produced any epic, earth moving posts with the additional free time, but my goal of connecting more in the real world is on track.

Blogging is a great outlet. You don’t need anyone’s approval other than your own to start a site. Its reach can be worldwide and often validated through readers comments and emails. It does, however, have a bit of an introvert feel to it. Similar to having all of your conversations via text or email. It can leave you wanting a bit more of a connection to the real world or real people.

That is one of the main reason I started volunteering my time and getting involved in my local community several years ago. I wanted to take what I was sharing and learned from my blog and other blogs to others offline, firsthand. One little step has grown into something larger, today.

offline

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Spending Habits of Our Teenagers

Last summer I posted an unscientific breakdown of the spending of our three teenagers. Like I said then, I’m sure there has been some study or report that captures this data, but why look further that our personal capital account. Well I’m back with an update, and …

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Money and Work Songs

Music can be very inspirational and motivating. When it comes to money and work we often need both. I listen to all types of music, often to relax or just calm my mind from the many things I might be focusing on in the moment.

I have written about the connection between music and money before, with the millions of songs in the world it’s hard not to have songs about these topics. Below is my latest list of money and work related songs. Happy listening.

work

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My Parent’s Financial Story

I don’t ever recall my parent’s specifically sitting down with me to talk about the topic of personal finance. I do remember asking questions along the way when I was old enough and aware of money and the cost of things. Even though we did …

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Rock Bottom

One of the biggest factors in our family getting our financial act together was that we hit rock bottom.  If we never hit that point I truly believe we would have continued down the path of bad habits, overspending, and living in debt. We were backed into …

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