Student Loans: Public Service Loan Forgiveness
I don't frequently discuss my place of employment during the course of this blog, but I had an interesting experience to share. I teach in a local high school. I went into the office and asked the...
View ArticleA Roth vs. Traditional IRA
Sometimes, we fail to do something that's good for us because we don't totally understand our choices. We get frustrated and fail to do anything at all. Retirement savings can be one of those areas....
View ArticleBeauty Savings
I am always looking for ways to save money on my regular and semi-regular expenses. Also, like many females today, I enjoy fashion, beauty, and treating myself. What I don't enjoy is the sticker...
View ArticleStudent Loans: Applying for Federal vs. Private Loans
Knowledge is power. That's a motto I live by, and it's what got me into student loan debt in the first place. I absolutely love to learn. Unfortunately, there are a few things I could have stood to...
View ArticlePrivate Student Loans: How I got into debt in the first place!
In February of 2004, I started a journey that would change my life. I moved to New York City, from Portland, Oregon, to study at a special musical theater conservatory program. The program lasted...
View Article5 Ways to "Spring Clean" Your Finances
Summer break is about to begin. This is the point in the year where I have two months off, and when my "Spring Cleaning" frenzy begins. I know it's not Spring, but it's when I have time to do a...
View ArticleHow I paid off $10,000 of student loan debt in 6 months
Before I can rightfully tell you about how I paid off $10,000 of debt in 6 months, I need to back up a little bit.Until the summer of 2016, my partner and I were living primarily off my income. She...
View ArticleHow we slayed the $8,000 credit card dragon!
When my partner and I first moved to New York City, I was the only one working. Our situation remained this way for more than a year before she finally found part-time work, then eventually started a...
View ArticleCredit Report Self-Monitoring
I greatly dislike debt. If you've been reading my work, you probably already know that. In general, I am not in favor of taking on a loan. That being said, there are a few situations in life where...
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The Credit Union Difference
This is a topic I've been sitting on for a while. While some personal finance articles are about products or services that you should consider, others are about strategies that you ought to be taking....
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6 Ways To Save On Your Cell Phone Bill
Lately, I've been feeling pretty eager to find some places to save money in our monthly budget. The difficulty is that we don't really have any nonessential categories. While we could both stand to...
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Is a penny saved really a penny earned?
"A penny saved is a penny earned," as the saying goes. But what does that mean? This proverb's intent is to highlight the value of saving by suggest that the value of saving money is equal in power...
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Taking Care of Me
When I think about the last 12 months in our lives (mine and my partner's lives), I realize that I feel tired. Accomplished, but tired. I worked 6 days a week for the majority of the year. My...
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The Landlord Files: A Financial Life of it's Own
As you might recall, my partner and I have a rental property in Portland, Oregon. It's been almost three years since we "placed it into service" as a rental, and I have to say that this rental has...
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The Landlord Files: Emergency Savings
We've talked about our own emergency funds, but haven't really discussed the specifics of being a landlord and having an emergency fund. As you probably know from a previous post, I keep a completely...
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Double My Money!
I was talking with my mother recently, and the conversation at hand was money and our investments. She was in the process of doing a little bit of financial housekeeping, and make some decisions in...
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How much is your time worth?
You know what? I love getting paychecks: regular paychecks, bonuses, overtime, side gig paychecks, checks in the mail, direct deposits... I love them all. It's easy to take for granted that another...
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Does "doing it yourself" save money?
This might come as a surprise to you, but, I haven't actually done my own laundry in about four years. You see, I'm all about saving money. I take back cans for a return on the deposit. I pick up...
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Invading Middle Class
About five years ago, I made a decision that uprooted my whole life. I decided to move to New York. I had many reasons to want to do this. One reason was financial. I had an employment opportunity...
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The effects of growing up poor...
When I stop to consider why I gave my blog name Sense with Cents, I suppose that it seemed to be the most obvious name. "Sense with cents" is something I've always had... or rather what I had to...
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