Somewhere between my free-spending days of college (where I built a great CD collection) and my wedding, I went through a dramatic turnaround. I came to realize how stupid it is to carry balances on a credit card, and I developed what was to become the personal budgeting strategy that carried me and my family through graduate school without any real hardships. In that time I have taken an interest in finance, and I hope to talk about it from time to time in this blog.
The guiding principal of my budget is that every penny that comes into my possession is labeled and categorized, and every penny that leaves is as well. Each financial transaction has to be accounted for, and this keeps me from spending too much without realizing it.
Today I spent a few hours completing the transition from keeping my money in a normal bank (okay, credit union) and instead putting most of it in a money market account through Vanguard. I have my paycheck direct-deposited there, and I have two automatic monthly withdrawals that will move money back to my bank for things like rent and auto insurance. I hope to get some good return instead of having my monthly expenses just sit in a checking account.
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