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Financial Milestones for twenty-somethings. What have you reached?

Last Updated: December 19, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I first noticed this on BrokeTO about milestones for twenty-somethings. Originally from Kiplinger.

“The following are six milestones that you should aim to hit in your twenties. In most cases, the sooner the better. And for those who already think they are hot stuff, I’ve highlighted ways that you can show you’re a true pro and earn “bonus points” in each area.”

Graduate and move on – I’ve done this. I know what I want to do and I’m happy.
- “Bonus Points if you pay off your student debt by age 30.” Haven’t done this yet, but I plan to.
Build a bulletproof network – Currently working on this. I know people in my line of field all over the U.S., due to my work traveling.
- “Bonus Points if you hit 500 LinkedIn connections with at least 50% of your connections are outside your existing employer.” I have around 100, so not there yet. But hardly any are from my existing employer.
Fund your emergency fund – currently working on. My goal is $15,000, and I’m at about $6,000.
- “Bonus Points if you save a year’s worth of living expenses in your emergency fund and put the funds into laddered CDs so you earn interest on them.” Not yet…
Start a Roth or traditional IRA and contribute – currently doing
- “Bonus Points if you contribute the maximum ($5,000 for 2011) to your IRA.” Haven’t done this yet, but I’m working on it!
If you get married, do it humbly – not married yet, currently saving money
- “Bonus Points if you keep your total wedding costs to under $5,000.”
Live above your means, buy below your means – I currently do this, kind of, I do have my splurges though.
- “Bonus Points if you build a monthly budget.” – Check!

So obviously I’m not doing great, but hey! I’m only 22, so I’m working on all of this.

How are you doing with this list?

I’m splurging on my hair…

Last Updated: December 19, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 7 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I’m finally getting my hair permed and cut. I try and get a hair cut every 3-4 months, but I’ve never gotten a perm, so I’m a little nervous. My hair is stick straight and yes I know, many people would love to get out of the shower and their hair just be straight, but I honestly can’t stand it anymore. I want CURLY hair!

And I can’t curl my hair. My hair can’t keep a curl to save my life. I’ve tried to get it professionally done, but my hair would fall limp before I left the salon. My stylist is hoping that my hair will take hold of the perm without having to try repeatedly.

Well, not suuuuper curly, I’m just getting a wave perm. Hopefully it’ll look something like the picture above. I’m also getting bangs, which is also a big difference.

So, in the end I’m hoping for something like the hair above. I hope it actually looks good. This is quite the splurge. Hair is one thing that I don’t mind spending money on, because I’ve had my fair share of bad haircuts. The total will be around $150 with tip, so this is a lot of money to me. I’ll keep you all updated, as my appointment is next week – just changed it to TODAY.

What do you not mind splurging on?

My 5 Guilty Pleasures

Last Updated: December 19, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I have many guilty pleasures, but here are my top 5.

Forever 21, the clothes are cute, but are cheap and don’t last long.
And then on the opposite side, JCrew. I’m addicted to their website, and I wish I had enough money to buy everything. I would say this is almost a problem.
Reality TV and gossip magazines
Mexican Food. I could eat it every day and people think I’m crazy. I have ate Mexican food everyday of the week before.
And my last one is reading the news all day long. I read around 5 newspapers and magazines a day, and countless articles online. It’s a problem, but I want to know EVERYTHING. I once checked the history on my computer to see how much I read in one day, and I was at 863 articles, in about 8 hours into the day!

What are your guilty pleasures?

Dinner that I made last night

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - Leave a Comment

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

This is what I made last night. I swear it looked a lot better in real life, I feel like it looks funny on the plate. I made manicotti, breaded chicken and salad with strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, and cheese of course. It tasted really good! I’m very happy with it.

Our eating in plan has been working so far. We’ve ate in everyday this week (I think). I plan on making chilli tonight so I’ll take a picture of that also. As always, leave any recipe ideas that you have!

Also, I just had to buy $200 worth of textbooks because my teacher decided he wanted more books for our class. UGHHHH. This will turn out to be an expensive week, but it’s mainly my fault. I’ll go into more detail on that, this weekend.

Holiday Shopping

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I started some of my Christmas shopping the other day. Check out my past blog post about holiday shopping if you haven’t done so yet. Managed to get a big stuffed animal and a Fischer Price toy for $0.40 altogether. All the toys at Kohls were 40% off and I also received a giftcard in the mail for $10 from Kohls. I’m very happy with these savings!

And I also have $45 in Swagbucks, so this Christmas for the kids in the extended family should be cheap! I expect that I’ll probably have around $70 in Swagbucks by Christmas-time, I’ve been slacking on Swagbucks lately, so it’s been adding up very slowly.

Have you done any of your shopping yet? How much do you usually spend per person?

Getting a Passport

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 4 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

LearnVest recently had an article about how to get a passport. I’ve been traveling a lot lately, but not out of the country because I don’t have a passport. The BF doesn’t have one either, and we are always talking about getting one, but the costs of obtaining one have been pushing us to push the date of when we get to get them back further and further.

Here are the steps if you’re thinking about getting one:

1. Fill Out Form DS-11: Application For A U.S. Passport
2. Submit Completed Form DS-11 In Person
3. Submit Evidence of U.S. Citizenship
4. Present Identification
5. Submit a Photocopy of the Identification Document(s) Presented (Step 4)
6. Pay the Applicable Fee
7. Provide One Passport Photo

Processing Times

Processing times can be found at the link above, but generally it is within 4-6 weeks and 2-3 weeks for expedited service
For expedited service, I know someone who got it within 1 week, so sometimes it CAN be sooner, but not always

Fees can be found here.

Do you have a passport? Do you have any tips for speeding up the process for a person who needs one at the last second?

My Plan to eat In Everyday

Last Updated: December 19, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 13 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I’ve noticed that other bloggers have made a goal to eat in everyday, and I’m going to try the same, except I’m going to modify it a bit. I can’t control my BF’s Lion’s Choice daily habit, so that little bit will be excluded. My goal is to make dinner every day. As some of you know, this is kind of a hard task, as I don’t get out of class some nights until 10pm, and don’t make it home until around an hour after that. The BF gets off work around the same time though, so it’ll be like it’s dinner time for the both of us.

But at around 10pm, I’m usually very drained from my 16 hour days. I’ll try and share with everyone what I make everyday, including pictures and recipes. Last night I made salad, steak, stuffed green peppers and pineapple upside down cake for dessert. The stuffed green peppers were Stephanie’s idea and they turned out great! I wish I would have taken pictures as I am very proud of myself.

The pictures that I take may not be the greatest though. I am not a great cook and have little patience for cooking! If you have any ideas for dinner for us, let me know!

Also, as I said earlier, I’m changing up the background and the layout of the blog today, sorry about that. Let me know what you like and don’t like please!

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