Personal Finance

Now is a great time to start a personal finance blog. If you know enough about it to advise others then you should. Over the next few years you're likely to have some success. I'm not going to do that, but it does weigh on my mind a lot so I will probably be writing about it.

Here's the story: I am the sole provider for my family of three. I make slightly less than average for my field and we have a slightly below average income for our area. We do have some debt in the form of school loans, a medical loan, and credit cards. We rent, but the area is expensive so our rent is higher than most of my family members' mortgages. Both of us have a car, but we owe nothing on them. My son is in day care twice a week so that my wife can attend school on those days.

That's the setup. My issue with this is that we are living slightly beyond our means with the school related expenses. Now, that does not mean that my wife should stop going to school. School is an investment, so the debt we incur today will lead to prosperity tomorrow. Instead, it means that we should be frugal wherever we can in an effort to avoid unnecessary debt on top of what we already have, and what is needed to accomplish our goals. At the same time I want to avoid a significant hit to our quality of life and be sure that we can provide my son with a fun and loving childhood.

I plan to make a few posts about what I'm doing to set my finances straight and how it's going. I don't think this will hit the same level of output that my political blogging did leading up to the election, though. I hope to have a few unique ideas, and maybe share some experience that can help others. At the very least I may bug my wife less about it.