DORÉ

Listening to this while painting my toe nails… :) I would appreciate the name of the book you’re reading, Emily!

Thanks for bringing the subject to light. I highly recommend striving for unity in your marriages in all aspects of life, which includes a joint bank account. It’s amazing if you’re both intentional/thoughtful with money and can save up for fun (or not so fun) future goals and dreams. On another note, I love how you mentioned establishing a clear picture of contentment in life that doesn’t involve competing with everyone else.

My background for those who are interested: I grew up in a middle class family in Southern California. My dad is a self employed carpenter/craftsman and my mom is a radiology technician. Unfortunately, they never spoke to us kids about money, so I learned from my older sisters and well-known Dave Ramsey. While at a private college in Texas (surrounded by loads of Southern money), my school loans weighed heavily on me and brought a lot of anxiety. I chose to move home and finished the last 2.5 years of schooling at a community college and a Cal State University. So grateful that I received a graphic design job immediately after graduation. I moved into a quaint apartment with two other roommates and lived a simple life to put about 40% of my income to paying off my debt. When my husband and I got married over two years ago, it only took a couple of months of dual income in order to be completely debt free. I still find joy in living simply and need to remind myself it’s ok a splurge every now and then.

Yes pleeeeaaaaase! More money and more weddings! I’m in the exact same phase of engagement and life, where thinking all this stuff through seems pretty critical and its great to hear I am not alone in these dilemmas! Thanks for the book recommendation Emily :) As always, great job guys! xxx

It is very interesting to listen to the relationship between American and money. As a French woman it was almost abstract to get how you manage to live a life with so much debts sometimes…
I feel that in France students don’t have as much debts because the price of university and healthcare is not very high yet. But we still struggle with money because as Garance explain in her story about buying a house, it is all about NOT have debts, or credits cards. If you need money to buy a house for example, or for an other big project, you need to be as “clean” as possible. Your bank considers that you are trustful if you don’t have debts, that way they consider that you know how to manage, to balance your life.
Sometimes, as in everywhere else it can be very difficult . But I think it is healthy because you have to be responsible very early, but again, it is possible because of the way of life in France.
(Sorry for my mistakes in English)

I really enjoyed this, thank you! It made me think back to Lauren Singer’s podcast a few months ago too. A lot of those choices she was making are actually money saving too, not just helping the environment. About a year ago, I started making much more money, but started buying so much stupid stuff and my overall quality of life didn’t end up getting any better than those post-college, low-income years. Strangely, I was more stressed because I was constantly thinking about what to buy next. Saying no is a powerful tool.

Thank you for this episode. My parents went through bankruptcy when I was a teenager and I have always struggled with anxiety around money. Thus far I have tried to use that anxiety to save as much as I can for retirement. And I paid my student loans off! But I graduated into the terrible 2010 economy with an arts degree. I worked minimum wage jobs and had unpaid internships while I lived with a billion people from craigslist. My friend would sneak booze in her boots to save on drinks at the bar. I’ve always appreciated my thrify creative friends who can make the most mundane things fun!

Some of my friends make me feel poor and some of them make me feel fortunate. As I approach 30, I see a lot of my friends making and spending more money. When I do buy things, I sometimes splurge to buy things that will stand the test of time. It seems to stop me from buying lots of things I do not need.

spendee is the best app ever. I’ve learned so much about my spending habits from it.

I enjoyed this episode so much! please make more with this topic!

Hey Emily,
A new edition is coming out with stuff added in from more recent F.I.R.E. bloggers (such as Mr. Money Mustache) soon! And, yes, that book is a life changer!

Just listened and YES please give more money talk. Learned and loved it

I loved this podcast episode – people do not discuss this enough! Really enjoyed the discussion and wish this was a full length episode! Especially would love to explore the concept of being financially independent vs loving fashion and how to find a balance