Category: Money Management

We’re working towards financial freedom. How we save, invest, and spend is a big part of that. Read about what we do to save more, invest better, and spend wisely in alignment with our values (family, travel, and FI).

Can You Shop Zero Waste and Be Frugal?

I discovered the Zero Waste movement, like so many others, when I stumbled on Béa Johnson’s blog, Zero Waste Home. Zero Wasters try to purchase and create as little trash as possible. People like Bea, who really originated the movement, get so good at it they can put all of the trash they generate in a year in a mason jar–everything else is refused, reused,reduced, recycled, or rotted, in that order.

The movement is super inspiring. Paying attention to how much trash you purchase and/or generate gets you thinking about how much waste we, as a society, generate. Zero wasters freely admit that for most people, creating no trash is really hard, if not impossible. The idea is to reduce as much as possible the amount of trash you create, to really think about what you purchase and be creative about ways of buying stuff with less packaging.

The biggest place you can make a difference in the amount of waste you make is at the grocery store.

Continue reading “Can You Shop Zero Waste and Be Frugal?”

February Net Worth Update

If you’re just joining, our family of four is on a three-year journey to double our net worth and become location independent so we can move abroad. Each month, I’ll keep you apprised of our progress. This year, we’ve got some major goals, including paying off our outstanding debt (car and apartment in Chile), replacing our roof, AND saving around $70,000. (Wow, that is scary to type all those goals out in one place). In January, we made some solid progress toward those goals, and got 7% of the way to doubling our net worth.

Ah, February. Month of heavy snowfall and rampant sickness in the ThreeYear household. During the four weeks of February I took on a new side gig, we went skiing a few times, I took some more toys out of my kids’ rooms, and we reminisced about all the financial mistakes and gaffs we’ve made along our financial independence journey. Continue reading “February Net Worth Update”

The Story of How Two Average Joes Got Out of Debt and Got on the Road to Financial Independence: Part II

Does getting out of debt, saving more, or building net worth seem hopeless? Fear not. You can make lots of mistakes, start late, and still create financial independence.

Part I of this post details the beginning of Mr. ThreeYear’s and my financial story.

Basically, it was the story of how we made a ton of financial mistakes, had several big setbacks, and still managed to make fine progress on the road toward financial independence. It detailed all the mistakes we made like buying a house at the top of the market and selling at the bottom, not saving for retirement early and blowing all our money on eating out and new Apple products, and buying cars we didn’t need on credit.

In Part II, I’ll explain how we dug ourselves out of what seemed like a hopeless hole, got out of debt, and totally transformed our financial situation.

Continue reading “The Story of How Two Average Joes Got Out of Debt and Got on the Road to Financial Independence: Part II”

How Do I Get Ahead If I’m Not a Mega Saver or Super Frugal? The Story of How Two Average Joes Got Out of Debt and Got on the Road to Financial Independence: Part I

Ever wonder how you can build financial independence if you’re not a super saver, maybe spend a little too much going out to eat, or like to go on vacation?

This is the story of how two Average Joes (or, one average Joe and one average Jane) have created financial security without being big savers, super frugal, or mega income earners (and still go out to eat and take vacations). Continue reading “How Do I Get Ahead If I’m Not a Mega Saver or Super Frugal? The Story of How Two Average Joes Got Out of Debt and Got on the Road to Financial Independence: Part I”

YNAB Review

**This year is A Year of Good Habits. Each month, I’ll focus on developing or strengthening one financial habit to better automate that behavior so we can double our net worth in three years and become location independent. In January, I’m focusing on setting and sticking to a budget as the goal. To do that, I started using a new budgeting software called You Need a Budget. Below is my take on how that’s working out for us.** (By the way, if you click the link above, you’ll get a free month and I’ll get a free month. Thanks for supporting this blog!). 

Here We Go

Why did I pick budgeting as a habit? Is it a habit, exactly? If we look at a habit as a behavior or set of behaviors that have become automated, then the way we channel the money that comes into our house is a habit. In the past, I’ve used the 50/50 budget method and Mvelopes software to channel our family’s finances. Some people use an anti-budget which works, too. But for me, a reformed spendthrift, I need the parameters of a budget to help me spend less. I say “I” because my husband does not have this problem to the same extent. He doesn’t spend much (I am also the family purchaser, for the most part. I buy groceries, pay insurance, etc.).

Continue reading “YNAB Review”

January Net Worth Update

Our family’s dream is to move internationally in three years. In order to do that, we’ve set a goal of doubling our net worth by December 2019. While that amount of money won’t replace our yearly expenses using the 4% rule (yet!—we’re slowly bringing down our spending),  it will give us enough financial security to leave our “safe” jobs to travel.

For us “semi-adventurous” folk, having that nest egg in the bank is important. Everyone has different levels of tolerance for financial security.

My husband grew up very, very poor, in Santiago, Chile. While his family always had enough food to eat, he spent time after school collecting wood scraps in order to heat their house. His mom worked three jobs after his dad died, when he was 13, in order to keep their family afloat. As you can probably imagine, financial security is important to him.

Mr. ThreeYear as a boy

Continue reading “January Net Worth Update”

The 50/50 Budget

I have a friend who is amazing in so many ways. She is giving, has co-funded charities that help refugees, and is so excited about life she never stops participating in cool events in our area. She has family who lives internationally so she and her family travel a lot. But she is terrified of budgeting. She and I have made dates to sit down and look at her budget but she keeps cancelling—she can’t bring herself to do it. She is afraid that if she puts the numbers to paper that she will be forced to stop doing something she likes—travel, supporting charities, enjoying local entertainment.

Continue reading “The 50/50 Budget”

I Changed This One Habit to Save Over $11,000 This Year!

Could you really implement one, just one habit into your life to save massive amounts of money in a year? 

You can, and it’s not too hard. I did it, and I saved over $11,000 in one year, without really trying to.

What in the world is this magic trick and how can you implement it? 

Read on.

The Excel Spreadsheet

It’s almost December, and I’ve just about completed the second year of tracking my spending on my good ole’ Excel Spreadsheet.

Wait, what? That’s the big secret? Tracking?

Yep. Sorry if you were expecting something more flashy.

But it really is as simple as that.

I started the habit last January (2015), when I wanted more control of my spending trends than my budgeting software was giving me.

Our family has made (and gone over) budgets since 2008, so I’d been keeping a close eye on our spending for many years.

I kept hearing advice that tracking your spending was important to financial independence, so…

I decided to manually track everything in my Super-Duper-Over-the-Top-Six-Sheet Excel Networth Spreadsheet.

And it turns out that manually tracking your spending is enough to change your spending behavior in major ways. 

Continue reading “I Changed This One Habit to Save Over $11,000 This Year!”