When faced with a difficult problem - and how to spend money in a way that will improve your life certainly is - it can help to work backward, reducing and excluding what doesn't work until what's left over is a decent approximation of favorable traits. Evolution works in similar ways, so thoroughly destroying what doesn't work that what's left over tends to work quite well.
Federal workers will bear the brunt of the stalemate. During the 2018-19 shutdown, which lasted 34 days, nearly 800,000 federal employees were either furloughed or were forced to work without pay. Additionally, active-duty military personnel will likely forego pay during a shutdown. This time around, the OMB has threatened mass firing of federal workers, which would increase the numbers. All government and military workers' wages will eventually have to be repaid when the government reopens.
Considering the current mortgage rate of around 6.41% in September 2025, and knowing that rates were half as much 10-15 years ago, it's becoming increasingly hard to convince anyone that buying a house right now is a good idea. This uncertainty has led individuals like this Redditor, who purchased a home with a high mortgage rate and is now deciding whether or not refinancing is a good option.
Had I ditched the pint of Guinness and invested in Apple in the early 2000s, each pint worth of stock would now be valued at $3,500. Over those college years, I would have accumulated enough stock to buy a brownstone on New York's pricey Upper West Side. All cash. Looking back, I probably still would have enjoyed that cold brew with my friends. A pint of Guinness felt just right in the moment.
Porter has had it since he was 16 and he's 35 now. It's obviously not electric or a hybrid, only gets around half the gas mileage, and he only drives it a few times a week to keep the engine and battery functional. We have a toddler, and the money we are forced to spend in order to keep this thing insured and running I would much rather devote to his care and/or a college fund.
More people than ever are living outside of their country of origin: according to the World Migration Report, 3.6% of the global population are considered international migrants. Moving abroad brings both challenges and rewards, but one recent survey suggests a single factor is shaping expat happiness more than ever right now: money. Internations, a global community for people living and working overseas, surveyed more than 10,000 expats across 172 nationalities. This year, the countries that scored highest for overall happiness also ranked near the top in the survey's Personal Finance index, alongside strong results for quality of life and ease of settling in.
The word "can't" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The ability to afford something is often a choice. I can afford a $50 hamburger, in the sense that I could spend $50 on lunch without triggering financial catastrophe. But I refuse to pay $50 for a hamburger because it's much more than I think a burger is worth.
Your $45K starting salary looked decent on paper until reality hit. The reality is that's the same $15/hour everyone was making in 2008. And it sucked then. Rent swallows half your paycheck before you even think about groceries. Student loans demand their monthly tribute like a financial overlord. And that emergency fund your parents keep mentioning? Please. This isn't an avocado toast issue. This is a laptop is required to function at work... even apply to work... issue.
Emma Jackson didn't have much money growing up - but that didn't stop her from buying her first home at age 25 and saving enough to pay off the mortgage two years later. The British blogger told Business Insider that, growing up, she was aware her parents were in financial difficulty after they had bad mortgage advice that left them in debt. She and her brothers started contributing to the household once they could, which helped her focus on being "really savvy" with money.
After graduation, I scrambled to get my real estate license because I literally had no idea what else to do. I could pass the state exams, and broker tests... But I felt like a complete fraud trying to advise people on the biggest financial decision of their lives when the biggest financial decision of my new career was the exam filing fees.
Money may not be able to buy you happiness, but it can make life a lot easier. That's the view of Simran Kaur, a financial educator and investor who hosts the "Friends That Invest" podcast. In an episode this week, Kaur spoke about money "myths," including the notion that money can't buy happiness. Having more money doesn't necessarily improve emotional well-being or happiness, she said, it just helps to solve inconveniences.
I retired at 34 in 2012, and my wife retired a few years later at 35 in 2015. We've been mainly living off our passive income and investments since. In 2023, I bought an expensive home I didn't need, becoming house-rich and cash-poor. Buying this house affected our desired lifestyle in San Francisco. As a family of four with two children, we had less liquid or passive income, which made me feel quite uneasy.
As for their overall budget breakdown, the family is paying $2,150 for their mortgage and utility bills, $180 for cell phones, $1,400 for both health and car insurance, spending an average of $800 per month on groceries, and approximately $200 per month on dining out. Now add to this $850 in car loans, $250 for gas every month, plus another $2,200 across 401(k), kids' college expenses, property taxes, and sports activities, and it's clear that this family is barely able to survive.
"What I've always found valuable about a checkbook register is that it helps you keep a close eye on your money and know exactly what's in your account, not just what your bank shows online," says Julie Beckham, financial education officer at Rockland Trust. "Your balance on a website or app may not include pending transactions, automatic payments, or checks that haven't cleared, which can make it easy to spend money you don't actually have."
For this Redditor, they are looking at a scenario where they have a 2.75% mortgage with approximately $500,000 left on the balance. This is equivalent to a $3,400 monthly payment on a house that is currently worth around $850,000. Having bought the house seven years ago for $715,000, this isn't a ton of growth, given what other areas of the country have done. This fact aside, the family has no other debt and has around $1 million sitting in retirement and non-retirement accounts.
Unemployed at the start of the pandemic, Ms. Pennick returned to Chicago and lived with her mother. She landed a job and saved diligently for a down payment, always planning to return to New York. This city is the place where I can be my authentic self, she said. Plus, my friends and church home are here. I am of the New York or nowhere' ilk.
Just because you make a six-figure annual income doesn't mean you should blow it. Indeed, we've heard countless stories about high-earning folks who still manage to live paycheck to paycheck. Lifestyle creep, big splurges (perhaps to deal with being burnt out at the office), and a lack of budgeting are all factors to blame for high-earning individuals who can't quite seem to get ahead financially.
I don't know if it's something I should bring up with them or not At 30, my friends are all in different places with our finances. Some are buying houses, getting married, having kids, moving up in their careers. Others are living paycheque to paycheque or haven't moved out of the family home yet. I fall somewhere in between, and make a decent enough living.
Young professionals working in a range of industries may feel like they've "made it" when the cross over into the six-figure threshold. Making $100,000 per year has been a goal many have set out to attain, and it can take some time in certain industries to hit this target. But with approximately one-fifth of the U.S. population earning this much money, and the number of six-figure earners living paycheck to paycheck surging, this sum isn't what it once was.
Welcome toMoney Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We're asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period - and we're tracking every last dollar.Today: a psychiatric nurse practitioner who makes $166,000 per year and who spends some of her money this week on a post-surgery Uber. Editor's Note and Content Flag: This is a follow-up diary.
