Hi all! I’ve been MIA for a minute! If you follow the blog at all, you’ll know I had a few things slotted for the previous few months, and just to name a few they included my basement rebuild, a new (to me) car, and a new baby (hence the new car). These things teamed up and knocked me out… of my goal of writing weekly or bi-weekly for the blog. But everyone is happy and healthy, and we’ve managed to trudge along in a decent financial position, despite all these things attempting to drag me kicking and screaming back into debt. I wish a sudden influx of a ridiculous amount of cash was a problem ..read more

The difference of wealth and spending between millionaires, billionaires, and us mere mortals is staggeringly huge! But first I wanted to take you on the tumultuous train ride that is my thought process. Stick with me because it is a long and winding track. One day I was perusing the most delightful sections of the internet, as one does. I stumbled upon the dumbest, (and I mean dumbest) conspiracy theory I’ve ever seen. Coincidentally, it appears to be the funniest conspiracy theory I’ve ever seen. It was titled “How the Michelin Man is Connected to Bill Gates Divorce and How He’s Going to Des ..read more

It’s true, side hustles are weird. Basics first – a side hustle is anything you do outside of your normal full-time job, to provide supplemental income. I think back in the day hustle used to imply shadiness, but somehow the word has come back around and now means hard work and determination. Oh and also, weird is good. When it comes right down to brass tacks, there are only a few ways to improve your financial situation. You can either earn more money or spend less of it. Most information on personal finance you’ll read focuses on spending less, trimming expenses, cutting back, budgeting. Per ..read more

You’ve heard me rant about emergency funds and how important I think they are, but the 4 walls actually come first. Before we can get started on improving our financial situations, we need to ensure our basic needs are met. We call these needs the 4 Walls. Wall 1: Housing Whether you lease or pay a mortgage, paying to keep a roof over your head is usually a big chunk of your income. Since sleeping inside is nice, we would prefer to keep this. This item on your budget is a top priority. Some of the other stuff inside the house is pretty important too. That’s why having an emergency fund is a b ..read more

I’ve written about a number of financially focused things this week, so I want to lay off the gas and go a different route. Cheap activities for your kids are hard to come by, so I built out a decent list! Lockdown was real. Winter was real. Cabin Fever is real. But luckily, summer is also real! Sometimes you just need something to distract you, or more realistically, the kids. Plus, this is frugal living. Kids need something that isn’t being plopped down in front of a screen all day, as easy as I know that’d be. So, here’s a list with the help of my wife! Yeet your kids Ok, obviously my wife ..read more

Both the debt avalanche and the debt snowball exist to help you succeed. Debt reduction is key to securing your financial future. There are multiple methodologies available here (you can probably guess two of them) for us to destroy debt. I ENTER THIS BLOG POST NOTIFYING YOU I AM BIASED. See if you can figure out which way. In addition, if you’re going to pay off debt, you should have an emergency fund, and make sure you’re not accumulating more debt!  If you read through my summary of Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps, you’re already familiar with the debt snowball to some degree. What else is ou ..read more

  A lot of us may know how to budget, know what financial goals we’re after, and even know our retirement goals. But how does it all come together? One of the best, consistently proven ways, is to follow Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps. My wife and I paid off our consumer debt by the age of 30, and because of the dreaded sinkhole beneath our home, are currently on Baby Step 3, after having previously been on 4/5/6. It’s been a great journey (minus the sinkhole thing)! If you’re in a tight spot, trying to eliminate some debt, save up money for big purchases, or otherwise move forward in your fina ..read more

Financial goals are where the “personal” comes into personal finance. These are your vision for the future, helping you determine how you’d like to spend or save your hard-earned money. These can be immediate short-term goals, or broad retirement encompassing goals further down the road than you care to think about. Many of these goals will overlap and even change over time, especially as life happens! Regardless of your goals, much like a budget, everything needs to be identified and locked in. Here at Fairly Frugal Father, I love examples and step-by-step instructions. 16% of millennials qu ..read more

Previously on Budgeting with Fairly Frugal Father… We’ve discussed why you should budget. Now we’re ready to discuss how to budget. Maybe you’re a beginner, or maybe you’re fairly well-practiced, but regardless of where you and budgets stand in your relationship– I’d like to bring you even closer together.  That means we’ll discuss the mentality, the process, and the results. We’ll also have some awesome resources (both free and paid) that you can utilize to get started ASAP. Back to Basics A budget is a documented plan for your money. It’s a breakdown of money coming in (income) versus ..read more

When I was in high school, a friend and I were pretty “serious” about writing a fantasy book. We were nerds who read every fantasy book we could get our hands on. We pulled out your classic spiralbound notebook and got to work coming up with a whole slew of things. The overarching story, characters, worldbuilding, symbolism, the mechanism behind the magic in this world, lore, mythology, and much more. I’m pretty sure the notebook was green. The color is significant because to this day, we argue about who kept, and ultimately lost the notebook. Naturally, since I’m the one with the blog, it w ..read more