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We need to talk about FinCon

Since the pandemic I’ve had a hard time focusing on writing blog posts; they seem pretty out of touch for our current environment. That’s only increased since George Floyd’s murder (and Breonna Taylor! Let’s talk about her!) and the resulting Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality. I’ve been struggling with what to say that doesn’t sound flippant about what’s happening in the world right now.

I’m a very privileged white woman and have for my whole life been content to just be not racist. I, like so many other people, am currently coming to terms with the fact that that’s not enough and I need to be actively anti-racist.

I’ve been having lots of conversations with my (mostly white) coworkers: I work at an institution that on paper looks decent in terms of diversity, but in reality has a very stark divide between who works certain types of jobs. To its credit, I believe my company is seriously invested in changing how and who we hire, how we work across all of our departments, and the legacies we perpetuate. It’s been interesting watching a reckoning coming for the personal finance community at the same time, as well.

It’s long past time for us to talk about FinCon. “Where money and media meet.” Where a whole bunch of personal finance bloggers and nerds go to hang out with their friends once a year. Where I’ve been uncomfortable supporting the founder and CEO for years based on rumblings I’ve heard, but had ignored until now.

I tweeted about it, but not everyone is on Twitter and it turns out this blog I’ve had trouble writing for lately is actually my platform, not my social media accounts. So here we go. Continue reading “We need to talk about FinCon”

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May 2019: I went shopping. And that’s okay

May was…a month that happened. It was a largely stressful month—every year about this time I have a fun existential crisis about what am I doing with my life, am I moving or staying here, am I moving out of DC entirely, am I falling prey to one more year syndrome? (Spoiler alert: I’ve been in my apartment five years and at my job for three. There’s been a lot of one more year syndrome buuuuuuuut that also doesn’t mean I don’t freak out for a few months every year anyway before ultimately deciding to stay put.) Nothing like a little annual existential crisis to spice up your life! Continue reading “May 2019: I went shopping. And that’s okay”

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Everything I spent on FI community events this year / Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s not my usual time or day to put out a post, but my family’s doing our Thanksgiving meal today before we go see Hamilton later tonight (!!!) because my mom and I are driving back up to DC tomorrow night so I can go to work on Friday. So why not a thankfulness/reflection post at an unusual time to go with our untraditional Thanksgiving this year? Continue reading “Everything I spent on FI community events this year / Happy Thanksgiving!”

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Personal finance for people with moderate incomes? Meet the Middletons

I make no secret of the fact that I don’t earn a ton and happen to live in an expensive city. In fact, that’s a huge part of the reason why I blog: I didn’t see anyone else blogging who had a similar background and story to mine. So I decided to start blogging to hold myself publicly accountable and to tell my story.

In amongst the six figure earners in the FIRE community (or honestly, even the people pulling in high five figures), it’s incredibly easy for me to feel like an impostor. I don’t think I’ve ever explicitly said so, but my last COL increase put me at just under $45,000. I’m lucky if I can reach a 40% savings rate most months, and I’m certainly not going to be financially independent before I’m 30, so who the hell do I think I am to be adding my voice to this space with my non-profit salary?? Often it seems like I am never actually going to reach financial independence.

But that’s why I’m documenting my journey, as a way to show people (AND myself!) that it is possible. It’s going to take time and lots of creativity both in terms of earning money and lifestyle design. But I believe it’s possible, and that in and of itself is reason to be writing and—dare I say it?—reaching for financial independence for myself.

When Gwen and J were interviewing me for FIRE Drill Podcast, they asked me if I had any resources or recommendations for people with lower incomes. And I blanked. I couldn’t think of anything terribly significant off the top of my head, even though I write as a person who makes a middle income. Why don’t I have any significant resources I can point people to? I ended up saying there’d be a project called The Money Middletons launching soon, so to keep an eye out for that.

Well, it’s happened: The Money Middletons launched today. Continue reading “Personal finance for people with moderate incomes? Meet the Middletons”

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A first-timer at FinCon18

FinCon18 (and, coincidentally, my last post) was almost three weeks ago at this point, so it seems a bit ridiculous to go into a long, detailed recap of what I spent and what I did each day. So I’m not going to (although it’ll be long anyway because that’s how I operate #verboseforlife). You can thank the fact that I’m STILL, an entire week later from when I realized I did not escape unscathed, recovering from some sort of crud I picked up at either FinCon or Disney, which meant I spent most of last week in bed (dear lord, can I just be better already??), for the extreme tardiness of this post ?‍♀️ Continue reading “A first-timer at FinCon18”

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I went to money nerd camp, summer/Midwest edition

Surprise, it’s Friday! What gives with the ridiculous lack of posting lately, especially considering I’ve been in town and have had time to write? Well, I walked into the Apple store with a malfunctioning computer on Monday[*] and walked out without one. That is, I walked out without a computer, functioning or malfunctioning. Not sure how long it’ll be before I get my computer back with hopefully some new parts that means it works like it should, and in the meantime I’m learning just how many things I prefer to do on my laptop than on my phone. Continue reading “I went to money nerd camp, summer/Midwest edition”

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I went to money nerd camp (aka CampFI Mid-Atlantic)

It’s likely if you’re in the DC area and reading this (or you happen to live right near where I grew up ?), you’ve probably met me (so people can attest to the fact that even though I’m anonymous I am a real person!). Because I love meetups. I love the large group meetups, I love smaller meetups, I love one-on-one meetups. The community really makes this ridiculous blogging hobby I have worth it.

And I just made my debut appearance at a large group event: I spent last weekend at CampFI Mid-Atlantic with about 70 other money nerds. Continue reading “I went to money nerd camp (aka CampFI Mid-Atlantic)”