Big Savings & Happiness, Can you have both?
Last year we saved $72,360. (Deep breath) You have to give it a moment to let it sink in. (more…)
Capsule Wardrobe Lessons: Love yourself
Its November and I am in the last month of my 2nd capsule wardrobe. But before we can talk about the 2nd go I want to share a recap. In September I completed my first capsule wardrobe challenge. This year I've really enjoyed taking on these monthly challenges. It's an organized way to try something new, and usually it's really fun too. So what's the benefit of a capsule wardrobe? How many items do you get? Is it going to benefit you financially? and most importantly what did you wear these past 3 months? 1st capsule outfits, Summer 2015 I'm so glad you asked. Well start with the easy one. Below you'll find a collage of my outfits. At work I wear a uniform (self imposed) which falls outside of my main…
A year off from work, Why? & How?
I have been wanting to take a year off from work for a very long time. As the year gets closer to its end I have a lot to contemplate. A young mother The whole idea started after giving birth to my son, he's 7 now. See I got pregnant while attending university and due to the situation I didn't even take my full 6 weeks off to recoup. I had deadlines and metrics to meet if I wasn't going to become another drop out statistic. There were plenty of breaks thanks to the academic school term and because of how close I live to campus I spent lots of time back home with my baby. But I still felt I was missing a lot. I remember telling my significant…
Weekend Wanderings #4: Tiny House for the Win
I'm over hear doting on tiny houses and their many upsides.While everyone is thinking bigger, and bigger. What's up with that? A Note to New Readers: My Weekend Wandering series is a time I take to wander off the main focus of this blog and discuss any other topic. Usually including videos that I found inspirational, informative or controversial. But if you'd like to talk about money read about how we obliterated debt in just 3 years. FYI, this post does dive into money, so stick around. Like all my weekend wandering posts this one is going to be chock-full of videos and the idea is that you watch them and be inspired. I won't be summarizing their awesomeness. Today I am wandering into the realm of tiny houses. I…
A Loan on Life: Helping someone out
How helping someone can go completely against good financial advice. And how it can change lives. I had messed up. I hadn't done my best. I hadn't tried my hardest. Maybe I hadn't taken it seriously from the get go. But there I was needing to take more classes and having just lost a big financial aid scholarship. $12,600 if I remember correctly. The scholarship was only good for the standard time to complete the degree. Me, I had just failed to do that. Why did I even go to college? You see my parents didn't go to college right after high school in fact my dad never even graduated. My mom finish high school and was shipped off to American from her central American home. My dad dropped out…
When Life happens TO You
You know when life happens to you.... When you wake up one morning and you can't believe you are in a certain situation... How did this happen?... How is it that I am still stuck in this dead end job. Or what happen to my dream of roughing it abroad... Life happens when you let go of the wheel .... When you stop being intentional and just go with the flow.. Going with the flow can be fine if that's truly who you are . but if you wake up one day and you don't know how you got to that point, then it means you flowed to much off track... I keep hearing this term thrown around and with out any follow up research I can say I'm probably…
5S : Continuously Improving your living space
Maybe you're new here. Maybe I just haven't talked much about work. ( why would I? after all I am here to try and escape it) yet with my avid distaste for corporate schedules and time restrictions even I have to admit I've learned quite a bit. Welcome to Lean. My trade for most of my working career was in Lean Manufacturing, also known as Industrial Engineering, or Continuous Improvement. Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't. In a nutshell my job was to analyze processes and remove waste. Removing waste is very important in a business. Its what keeps you profitable. Yet what really amazed me as I learned more was how these philosophies and their application were so widely applicable. Even at home. I've read finance blogs…
Biking with Kids: Our 1st Trip to School
We are on our way to Badassity. Monday we move on to a new challenge. Biking long distances with kids on a time constraint schedule with only one parent! The time part and the 1 parent here is the new piece. We spent time preparing for this trip by talking about it for a few weeks before hand and getting some of the logistical information. Like is there even a bike rack at the school?Answer. YES. [caption id="attachment_1050" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Minnie Roamer letting me know she is ready to ride her own bike.[/caption] So we woke up early got ready and set out. We rode the route we usually drive since it has a bike lane in some areas. The only adjustment we made was taking some different streets so…
Raw and unfiltered: I want more
It's the year of more says Ramit Do you want more? I do want more. More me time, more free time, more travel, more calm, more balance. But I don't want more jewelry, more clothes, more bills, more clutter, more dinners out , more Jones' or fake friends. I do want more snuggling, more sleeping, more kids time, more roaming, more wandering, more adventure. I don't want more nail polish, or more make up, more stress, more demanding people. I could use more money, more freedom, more passive income. I don't need more stereotypes, more restrictions, I don't need more problems or why it won't work. I do want more solutions, more innovation, more education , more reading. I don't want more late nights at work…
Weekend Wanderings #3: Breaking Down Barriers
New Readers Note: My Weekend Wandering series is a time I take to wander off the main focus of this blog and discuss any other topic. Usually including videos that I found inspirational, informative or controversial. But if you'd like to talk about money read about how we obliterated debt in just 3 years. Work has gotten crazy busy in the new year and if you read my first Weekend Wandering post then you know that Fridays is the day I set aside some time to be inspired and engaged. With the crazyness at work I had no time. Until last Friday! The videos I watched did not disappoint. Not me at least. The first video that caught my eye had the words tolerance and tourism in the title. hmm…
Do you put your money where your mouth is?
I made a lot of changes last year. Honestly though, they were easy changes to make. Math, I trust it. And it showed me it would be no problem to reach my goals. Today I'm going to make a big change. I am so scared. That is so depressing in itself, when did I become so complacent. I have been with my company since 2008. The last 2 years I have suffered through it. I wasn't proactive enough, maybe. Truth is it doesn't matter, I just never did much about my situation. I see now that I've stayed because it was safe. I've been saying, "I am ready for a change," but I haven't done anything really. Just last year I changed positions but I'm still with the same company.…
Will you take the 31 day Challenge?
I don't really write about minimalism but it is implied... oh wait I haven't implied it either. Well then ok... As an aspirational traveler but also a parent stuff can easily become burdensome. I've been working on trimming down on my possessions because they really have become more trouble then they are worth. To help keep me motivated and also spurn me into action. Aggressive action! I am going to do the challenge posed by The minimalists( you can read more about it here). I will be starting January first. I will try to follow the rules but I am making one alteration. I know how difficult it can be to resell stuff so I am giving myself 30 days to sell the stuff that I think I can sell.…
Weekend Wanderings #2: The Easy Life
Welcome to my weekend wanderings. I'm the Roamer here at Traveling Wallet. I hope you enjoy these videos. I know when you make big goals you often need inspiration and motivation and that's what I hope you'll get here in these segments. Do you feel like life is hard? Are you running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to climb some corporate ladder? So much to do so little time. I often like to ponder such questions. Sometimes I don't have all the words, or know all the right things to say. In these times I'm happy to defer to the experts. In my head I made it a goal to include at least 3 videos for all my weekend wanderings but today's video is so powerful and…
401K I like you more then Presents
A bit a ago I wrote this article about the 401k and how we would use it. I think it wasn't super clear so let me paraphrase. I talked about how I had an ah ha moment, that I didn't have to wait until next year to max out my 401k, that I could do it now. For this year! Well at the end I said I would make the changes which I made. Well Mr. Roamer then asked, I thought we were already maxing them out. No sorry honey, like I mentioned in the previous post I had done the math for 12 months of contributions. Or I guess a rolling 12 months. But that's not how taxes work so if we want to max it out for this…
Weekend Wanderings: Include Language in your Journey
I have a little ritual I developed at work to cope with my dissatisfaction. I had listened to 7 habits cast and realized that effective people take responsibility for their lives. I was feeling rather passionless when I started but I found that watching some TEDx talks always gave my mind a work out whether it was inspirational or informative or controversial. It got my juices flowing. So I've made it a point that every Friday I schedule 30 min. To be inspired. After watching these I find a few that just are Wow and I want to share them. I use to email them out but it felt weird to just include specific people. And it seems limiting. But now, I own a blog a place where I can…
A Wedding or A Marriage? Part 1
Here at the Traveling Wallet I am trying to talk about the journeys we go through in life, and one of the many stops people encounter is indeed the wedding. At 27 I'm at the age where everyone seems to be getting married or having babies. Seriously its every where. But today I'd like to focus on marriage, lets start with a story. Maybe you've had a conversation like this lately maybe not but what's the first thing to talk about when there is a proposal and therefore a marriage on the horizon. Well The ring of course... what follows is an actual conversation Coworker " I'm going to propose to Jenny*, how much did you spend on your wife's ring?" "I spent about $300 on it" Coworker "Oh I'm…