This Month’s Focus: Shelter Gail let us know that her focus for the month of May will be shelter and for June it will be life changes such as marriage and graduation. Renting The first conversation was about renting and Gail started with her Rule #1: “Renting is not a waste of money.” I appreciate Gail’s desire to give perspective on why a rental unit is not less of a home than a purchased property. As a renter myself, it’s a good reminder to check my motivations for wanting to own my own home. Costs of a Home I live near an expensive city, so I wasn’t surprised when I…

Reality Check This is week two of Gail calling out our delusions. Overdraft Protection Next, Gail broke down what it means to have an overdraft. The main points she makes are:1. Overdraft is debt, very expensive debt2. The bank can recall an overdraft at anytime3. If you’re using an overdraft, you’re being lazy Breaking the Overdraft Cycle Getting rid of your overdraft habit ties into Gail’s first tweet of the week–if we’re determined to take the easy path, we are likely banking on a delusion. Changing habits can be hard work, but once the changes are made, things can get easier. Bill Payments Next the focus turned to getting a…

Am I Delusional? What better way to start off a Monday than with some real talk from Gail. Money Set Point Gail introduced the concept of a money set point this week. I had never heard of this before, but it makes sense. Thinking back on the different salaries I’ve had in my life, I can see there were certain points I was looser with my budget than others and I attribute that to the security I felt at that income level. I’ve always used separate savings accounts for various things. I had never thought through how this could be helping me save more in the long run because it…

A Few Truths Gail started the week sharing a few of her tidbits of wisdom. HISAs and Interest Rates Gail already had us looking for High Interest Savings Accounts (HISAs) with good interest rates and she had instructed us to move our money to get it working harder for us, but she reminded us of the importance of this again this week. Participants shared some of their banks and their HISA interest rates in this tweet. Personal Economy The focused turned, as last week did, to the concept of our personal economy. Gail clarified what a “strong financial foundation” meant in a tweet. A strong financial foundations includes the following:…

Wants vs. Needs We touched on this subject earlier in the year, but it impacts our budgets so much that it bears repeating. Needs = things we must have to keep us, body and soul, together.Wants = things we like to have. I’m definitely guilty of giving into my wants. One example is this past week where I bought the biggest possible bag of Mini Eggs to help me cope with some emotional stress. Now I could argue pretty hard over this purchase being a need, but I get that it isn’t. One way I make these emotional purchases work for me is to have a set grocery budget that…