Spending & Saving

Thanks to Betterment for partnering with me on this emergency fund guide.  Ah, the emergency fund—the cash cushion, the oh, sh*t account, the rainy day fund. The emergency fund is the foundation of a functioning, healthy personal financial system for most people. So how should you think about it? The purpose of the emergency fund […]

Before I was a person with way too many opinions about personal finance, I worked professionally in user experience strategy, design, and writing—a field that I’ve joked saw me ascend the ranks to Associate Manager of Turning That One Button Blue So More People Would Click It. Why am I telling you this? Because when […]

“Freedom without discipline is chaos.”—Cullen Hightower I heard from a reader the other day who’s in marital gridlock about the best way to manage their newfound high income. When they earned less, she said, they were in agreement about their strategy: They used dedicated savings accounts for discretionary purchases and a rollover strategy, in which […]

There’s something stressful about consumption. It demands forethought, analysis—but it’s so often disguised as entertainment (#TargetRun! Women be shoppin’, amirite?) that we forget how much effort it takes.  A few weeks ago, I was reminded of the year’s most acute variant of this feeling: “What’s on your list for Black Friday?” The question prompts a […]