The elephant (snake?) in the room: fear, guilt, and excitement

In case you haven’t been able to tell from my social media or recent posts, I’ve been doing a lot of hiking lately.

There were the 16 miles I hiked solo two weekends ago. Last weekend I went with other people on Saturday, but alone again on Sunday. And let’s just say between trail conditions (SO MUCH MUD) and my brain, Sunday wasn’t exactly the must fun I’ve ever had out on the trail. Continue reading “The elephant (snake?) in the room: fear, guilt, and excitement”

Doing hard things, part 2: waiting

Last week I told you all how I’d asked for a raise and a title change for the first time ever in my life. And I also wrote about all the awful things my anxious brain has been thinking about in response. While this is still incredibly uncomfortable, I’m pleased to say that the title of that post is still accurate: nothing horrible has happened (yet)!

I was told it would be at least a week for the high-level conversations to happen, which would mean in theory they would happen by last Friday. I haven’t heard anything back yet about how that went. But I do have more to report.

That first post was about the first conversation I had with HR. The day I wrote it, I had a second conversation with HR. Continue reading “Doing hard things, part 2: waiting”

Doing hard things, part 1: nothing horrible has happened (yet)

Listen, y’all, I’m going to tell you a secret: I have never once in my life asked for or negotiated a raise.

For my first big girl job, I was coming off of two months of unemployment and would’ve (and did) accepted the first thing offered to me with zero questions asked. For my current job, it was such a step up in terms of salary and job description that I didn’t feel it was my place to fight for more, other than the obligatory asking if that was the highest they could go. Plus they told me that they were paying me a bit extra because raises were coming out in a few months, which I’d miss out on, so I’d have to wait until the next year for a raise.

So, okay.  I got a 3% raise last year as a cost of living increase. I didn’t ask for more then, especially because my job was…let’s just say up in the air as a result of the reorganization happening in my department. Not in the sense that I’d be let go eventually, but in that no one knew (or still knows) what my job will ultimately look like.

But a switch flipped for me last week. Continue reading “Doing hard things, part 1: nothing horrible has happened (yet)”

Five things I don’t regret spending money on

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about ways I’m saving money or things I’m no longer spending money on. It’s a function both of being on the FIRE path and also just a fact of life for someone on a non-profit salary. There’s lots of talk in the personal finance community of how to save money, ranging from small things like lattes to the big things like houses and cars.

But saving money isn’t the whole story—sometimes there are times when it makes more sense to spend money than not to spend it.  I’m a broken record when it comes to talking about why I spend so much money each month on my barre membership. But here are five not-so-obvious larger-ticket items I’m glad I’ve spent money on. Continue reading “Five things I don’t regret spending money on”

What I learned from my meditation experiment

At the end of last month I wrote about how I was going to start meditating every day for the month of November. Remember how I said I was making it an experiment, not a challenge, because that way I couldn’t fail?

Friends, if this had been a challenge, I would’ve failed miserably.

I missed a few days here and there in the first two weeks, and over Thanksgiving I didn’t meditate a single day. I’m still at over 50% success rate for the month so far, but I don’t know that it’s much higher than 50%.

Luckily though, this was an experiment, which means I haven’t actually failed! In addition to not-failing, my month of haphazard meditation has actually taught me way more than I was expecting. Continue reading “What I learned from my meditation experiment”

The intersection of money and mental health

While this is ostensibly a personal finance/financial independence blog, I don’t want it to be strictly about money. I tell a lot of stories about my life to illustrate points, that yes, are related to personal finance, but I want to continue talking about travel, food, privilege, mindsets, habits, and my ridiculous collection of brightly-colored flats. This blog is about my journey, which involves way more than the cold, hard numbers of grocery price comparisons.

Here’s a big thing I haven’t talked about yet: I deal with depression and anxiety. Continue reading “The intersection of money and mental health”