Old School Coinage

Let me begin by directing you to the article this is in response to... HERE. I also want to say that most of what I am about to say is not popular opinion.  In fact, it is quite far from that and worthy of some flame...so go for it haters.  I also would like to say that this is not an attack on MMM or his ideals.  I simply disagree with some of the points on his most recent article. I am now going to assume that you have read MMM's article, and if you haven't then go ahead and do so, because I won't be re-writing the whole thing here. To begin... I am a public school teacher.  Therefore I get pretty angry at the public's idea of "us" and what "we" do.  I get up early.  Every day.  5:15am to be exact.  Why?  So I can go to school and work out.  Is this required?  NO!  Does it make me a better and more energetic teacher?  HECK YES!  Then I work for about an hour before school on various email, grades, curriculum...

Hello there again faithful readers...or casual passerby...ok...  So maybe you accidentally clicked here thinking this was Mr. Money Mustaches blog.  It is not.  I'm not half as cool.  Before you go though maybe you would enjoy taking a look at my personal finances and where I am at in life.  That way you can either laugh, cry, or give me a pat on the back and your viewership inspires me to keep going.  So thanks.  Now lets get crackin! Mint says my current net worth is... - $123,446.73 That is a difference of... + $ 7227.04 Whoo HOO!!!!  That is right haters, I'm headed in the right direction this year.  So how did I increase my net worth by that much?  Did I fall into a pile of money or rob a small ATM?  Nope.  Read on to find out how the old school family is kicking off 2015 right.   Account Breakdown... 1. Emergency Fund                ...

If you want to be fast, study sprinters.  If you want to be strong, study strong people.  If you want to be rich, study PF bloggers?  Maybe.  The point that I'm trying to make is that I'm unashamedly copying some other PF bloggers out there (namely MMM ) and decided to look back at what I spent in 2014 and on what.  It may not be the best representation and I realize there will be some odds and ends that I have to tie up, but 2014 was the first FULL year of using mint and tracking expenses for the old school family. Here we go. HOME: $8,788.00 ....... Per month: $732.33 Out biggest expense was our house next year.  We are probably not alone and I believe most Americans spend the most money in this category.  We went a little house cray cray last year and slowed down after February.  We just have to keep telling ourselves that projects happen over time, not ALL AT ONCE! I do expect the total $ to go up on home this year, but that will prima...

What up, for the first time in 2015!!!!  Comin' atcha' like a freight train, or maybe like a train wreck, is Old School's breakdown of how December went. First I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and New Year.  I know in the Old School family we kept it pretty lighthearted and fairly non-consumeristic.  I think that even though we do a good job next year I would like to cut out presents all together from most of my family.  I still want to get my mom and dad something, but as for the siblings, cousins, and grandparents we are done.  I don't mind giving small appreciations of our affection that we make, but I personally don't want to receive any food presents next year.  SERIOUSLY!  I probably ate my weight in candy and chocolate and this is not good for my body at all! NET WORTH UPDATE: Mint says my net worth is currently... $ -130,673.77 That is a difference from last month of... + $ 819.23 That is not a huge number, but it is a number...

What up readers?  It is I, Old School, back and feeling refreshed from a weekend retreat to the windy city (although it was pleasantly calm while I was there).  The Mrs. and I took a short vaca to Chi-Town this past weekend and spent 3 days walking around the city.  I was bundled up pretty warmly as I tend to get cold, but the weather was pretty mild for this time of year.  The following will be a short trip breakdown.  You can even skip to the bottom for a very brief highlight reel if you don't want to read this whole article. Start: We drove north to Aurora Illinois and hopped on the Metra, which is a commuter train to Chicago.  It cost about 1.50 per day to park, so we spent $4.50 to park three days.  Not bad considering the cheapest parking I saw in Chicago was $20.00 a day!  Then we hopped on the train for $14.00.  Total, that's only $18.50 in transportation, not counting the gas to and from Aurora.  Not bad, and I didn't even hav...

* Despite the cutesy name of this post and the picture below, this blog post is going to be pretty fired up.  Shoot I may even regret writing it some day, but I doubt it.  It may offend you, and it may contain cuss words so deal.  I usually don't set out intentionally calling anyone out in my posts, but today I just don't give a flip.  MMM offends people with his blog, and I figured what the hey so without further adu let the face-punching commence.                                                               Image courtesy of Yahoo That's right world.  I'm hear to let you know that I don't owe you JACK SQUAT.  I am writing this because I fear that ou...

Pull up a log round yon fire and unbuckle your pants from over indulging in yet another glutenous Thanksgiving.  I am about to regale how a hard November for the Old School family ended well. Mint says my net worth is now... - $131, 493.00 This is a difference from last month of....  - $ 952.22 Hmmm....well how that number wasn't supposed to go down!  Well it did, so let me explain why. Firstly I had an unexpected surgery on a decaying tooth.  OUCH!  Well actually the surgery was pretty painless, it was afterwords that kinda sucked. Secondly The bill from my wife's ex-doctor showed up this month finally and we payed it.  It did not show up in last months mint statement so I believe it kind of screwed up our net worth. I lost a little traction in the month of November due to a couple of other things as well.  Mint seemed to be giving me hick-ups within the budgets and I could never get them to line up with what I had set them up for....