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  • 2020: What We Learned
    We’re a week and a half into the New Year and … wow. Not gonna lie, I did think things would get a teeny bit better. Instead, I’m already fondly looking back and reminiscing, Remember when people only dressed up as Vikings for football Continue Reading
  • How To Negotiate Your Salary
    Many of my readers are young women. A big problem that still exists for women — young or not — is pay disparity, getting paid less than their male counterparts for the same work. Oftentimes, this result comes about because women do not negotiate Continue Reading
  • How To Calculate Your Net Worth (Equity)
    I’ve written about this before, but it feels timely during a pandemic when folks might be looking at their financial situations with a little more of a critical eye, to circle back to the topic of personal equity, i.e. basically get to talk about Continue Reading
  • The #1 lesson of the pandemic
    Me, again.  How’s everyone doing out there? Anyone else patiently waiting for that guy to jump out and say, “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera!”? A new zoonotic disease that destroys modern civilization! Good one, haha! I am fine.  And by “fine”, I mean “things-are-groovy-on-paper-but-I-hate-everything-and-everybody”. Continue Reading
  • LBYM rates the pandemic
    You know I didn’t want to write about coronavirus, right? I mean, who needs another depressing headline and dreary report about a destructive, unthinking, orange, thin-skinned, entitled, haphazard virus that wreaks havoc on America’s physical, mental, and economic well-being? And don’t even get me Continue Reading
  • You can count on this
    Today, we turn our attention to a particularly timely topic that afflicts us all, an omnipresent factor in our lives that we not only can’t see and have little control over, but has also caused many a historical episode of panic marked by frenzied Continue Reading
  • How to say no
    If you have a child, invariably you will reach a point when said child will ask for something beyond what you, oh generous parent, offer them. In our current consumerist culture, it doesn’t matter if you never actually take them to a store … Continue Reading
  • Do one thing
    Good news—Christmas is over! Hallelujah!  A model of forbearance, my middle kid waited until we were leaving Grandma’s house on Christmas night before starting to muse about his 2020 wish list. Ladies and gentlemen, December 25th—the one day a year he plans for the Continue Reading
  • If you need an excuse to buy those shoes
    Hey there! Long time, no blog, huh? Sorry, sorry! Winter was coming, and I had only so much time to enjoy my car, ya know what I mean? Also, life.  Don’t worry—advances in the art of living beneath your means happen … glacially.  Case Continue Reading
  • If you need me, I’ll be in my car
    One of the occasional drawbacks of running a personal finance blog called Live Beneath Your Means is the scrutiny and commentary my purchases attract. Granted, I could easily avoid said scrutiny if I were to, say, stop posting my fabulous buys on facebook, but Continue Reading
  • Super size your savings
    I conducted an experiment with my two sons the other day—an experiment, I mean, in addition to the GRAND human experiment of somehow doing everything in my power to keep them alive and, simultaneously, wanting to throttle them every hour on the hour. Is Continue Reading
  • Free to be
    I can always tell when I’m feeling a bit, shall we say, hemmed in. Typical tip-off: I run across a picture of a koala bear in a zoo munching on eucalyptus leaves and my first thought is, Well, she’s got it good. I mean, Continue Reading
  • USA(A)! USA(A)!
    You probably can’t tell just yet, but a regular feature on the blog is a series of posts titled “Spend Your Hard-Earned Money Here!” highlighting terrific companies that actually make it easier to Live Beneath Your Means.  *crickets* Really, I’m trying. I keep my Continue Reading
  • Be THIS 1%
    Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of ads for Barron’s. Are you familiar with Barron’s? You probably know the name from one of two, unrelated publications—1) a weekly magazine self-styled as the world’s premier investing publication since 1921 and 2) a line of Advancement Continue Reading
  • I read the report so you don’t have to
    The Federal Reserve Board recently published its annual Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households which details responses and takeaways from the annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking or SHED. I do not make these acronyms up. A lot of the time, Continue Reading
  • Is this place the secret nexus of LBYM?
    Summer, when it finally rolls around these parts, is a very nice time to be in Madison—truth. The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, the lakes are shimmering, the custard is … rich. Everything is awesome! Except for the mosquitoes. Which goes to Continue Reading
  • Let me tell you a story
    People are natural storytellers. I know. Here’s an actual picture of me waiting for my middle kid to finish telling a story: Stories are important. Even short ones, one-liners, exert a strong influence on what we believe about ourselves—who we are, what we’re capable Continue Reading
  • Twice as nice
    Here’s a question for you. How much more would a woman who saved $6,000 at age 22 have at age 70 compared to a woman who saved $6,000 at age 34, assuming both put the money in an investment growing at 6%? Neither woman Continue Reading
  • A love letter to Dig & Save
    I was supposed to write this post on Wednesday, but oops, it was half-price clothing day at Dig & Save. Research first! Let me tell you about my favorite place in Madison. The Capitol? Nah. The shores of Lake Mendota? Nope. 5 Star Korean Continue Reading
  • What you don’t see can hurt you
    This past week, the test prep company I work for held what is known as Convocation, an annual two-day meeting that brings together the organization’s mostly remote instructors to the company’s headquarters in New York City for some solid together time. While ostensibly a Continue Reading
  • Don’t forget Future You
    I made a bunch of videos in April. You know, for all the means. More accurately, our crack video production team in New York made a bunch of videos in April and I somewhat impeded the process by standing around unsure of what to Continue Reading
  • Let us now praise micro-vacations
    There really is no excuse for not knowing exactly what Mom wants for Mother’s Day. Unsure? At a loss? Just ask Reddit. Let me give you a sampling, circa 2019: A nap I don’t have to set an alarm for A long bath and Continue Reading
  • My review of Imperfect Produce
    I got my first box of Imperfect Produce on Tuesday. If you were going to start a company and wanted me as a customer, this is just about as good a concept as you could dream up. Ugly produce diverted from landfills? Check. Prices Continue Reading
  • What “good” health insurance looks like
    As you know, April was all kinds of busy here at LBYM headquarters. Thanks to the haranguing of some dear, and very pushy girlfriends, I also caught up on some routine health screenings. It says a bit about how your month is going if Continue Reading
  • When LBYM is a farce
    You know what else makes it difficult to write about living beneath your means? Taking your son out for lunch and seeing posters like this: $10 an hour? Really? And the poster was huuuuuge. As if the well-known and no doubt very profitable fast Continue Reading
  • April really IS the cruelest month
    Dear LBYM: How come you didn’t write anything in April? Sincerely, A Faithful Reader Dear Faithful Reader: Do you think T. S. Eliot lived in Wisconsin? Gotta love a month where you pretty much need every piece of footwear you own at the ready. Continue Reading
  • Spring Breakin’
    This year, Spring Break fell on the same week as it did last year. Last year, however, we were smack dab in the middle of a big transition for the family. Not only was the Friday before Spring Break last year my last official Continue Reading
  • Thanks for nothing
    Here’s the scene from my credit union this morning: I am pretty sure I know what’s happening. And I’m none too pleased about it. What are those guys doing on the scaffolding, you ask? They’re updating the building facade to reflect the credit union’s Continue Reading
  • In case we haven’t been talking about college enough
    Do you know what all the headlines about the “side-door” college admissions scandal tell me? That news editors and reporters are probably parents of (elite?) college-track kids. Given the amount of ink (bytes?) spilled so far, I have a feeling this particularly story is Continue Reading
  • The real scandal in the admissions scandal
    By now, I am sure you have heard of the admissions scandal that has recently engulfed various titans of industry and their progeny. No? You must not work in test prep! I do work in test prep and am somewhat conversant in the “arms Continue Reading
  • An (alliterative) allowance alternative
    Do you give your kids allowances? I don’t. I mean, I don’t give my kids allowances. I don’t really interact with your kids much haaaaa. My miserliness should surprise exactly zero of you since, as I’ve written previously, I don’t give my kids much Continue Reading
  • Winter is so bad, I sat through insurance agent training
    You know how moms are, right? Lucky me, I’ve got one, too, and ever since I quit my job last year, she’s made it her mission in life to convince me to … sell life insurance. This, despite my many protestations that I literally Continue Reading
  • You only get this AFTER you order three entrees instead of two
    Listen to the panda.
  • Stocks, Part 2
    Last we gathered, we were discussing the merits of your buying a share of my cheese-making operation, available for the bargain price of $400. Granted, I have not made any actual cheese, but on the other hand, I also have no expenses … or Continue Reading
  • Stocks, Part 1
    For the record, I have no stock picks for you. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Surprised? I mean, isn’t that what financial educators … educate about? Well, no. Here’s the thing about individual stock recommendations—from anyone. By the time a stock tip reaches you—and I don’t Continue Reading
  • Be boring
    If you had to describe your personal finances in one word, what would it be? I would hazard a guess and say exactly zero of you would return, boring. Yup, that’s how I roll … really. I know, because looking at the numbers is Continue Reading
  • Better than chocolate
    With its focus on candy, over-priced floral obligations, and damsels always on the receiving end, Valentine’s Day sparks about as much joy around LBYM headquarters as Halloween does. I don’t have anything against love—just as long as it doesn’t turn my kitchen table into Continue Reading
  • I don’t care that you think I’m crazy
    You know how I feel about routine. You’ve heard me laud flexibility. Today’s lesson in You and Money … But Better—not caring what other people think. I was at the grocery store earlier today and two of the items rang up higher than their Continue Reading
  • I did the research so you don’t have to
    It’s a good thing I’m not telling you to eat within your means since this just happened: Also, this: And a bit later, this: Oh, the things I do for my readers. Let me backtrack. A recent article in Southern Living reviewed all the Continue Reading
  • Whatcha think about mint.com?
    Because I work in financial education, people often ask me what I think about the many online tools available to help people manage their money, whether you’re looking to track your budget or your Net Worth. What’s your opinion of mint.com? goes one common Continue Reading
  • This time … with feeling
    Happy Lunar New Year! Also … mulligan! For sure, the best part of celebrating not one, but two New Year’s Days each, er … year, is getting the chance to take another look at your resolutions, your many, many resolutions, and … laugh 😆. Continue Reading
  • Did I bankrupt Sears?
    You have to feel a little bad for Sears. Once the dominant retailer in America—its mail-order catalogs sold just about everything up to and including houses—the company, after a rough number of years, finally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last October. Exactly zero people Continue Reading
  • 1099 FTW
    January went out with a bang for sure with all my kids home from school for seven straight days thanks to Mother Nature. Actual image of me tonight: So glad I got my hair cut when I was in NYC recently. Speaking of ending Continue Reading
  • My first Instant Pot recipe
    It’s so cold here, the US Postal Service suspended delivery. Even more astounding, the bars are closing. People! I live in Wisconsin. Even the BARS are closing. We’re all gonna die! I mean, we’re all gonna die regardless, but these are strange times. My Continue Reading
  • Guess I won’t be doing THAT
    Sometimes, I miss having a full-time, 9-to-5, “normal” office job. All that lovely routine … adults-only spaces … free coffee and snacks … a regular paycheck. I particularly miss said job when people ask me what I do for a living. Umm, do you Continue Reading
  • What is a dollar worth?
    What is the value of a dollar? And I don’t mean 100 pennies or 20 nickels or four quarters … though a dollar is all of those things. I mean, what is a dollar worth? Maybe you’re like supermodel Linda Evangelista who famously said, Continue Reading
  • Are we rich?
    A few weeks ago, a question came up at the dinner table. My son asked, Are we rich? Immediately, I said, Yes, we are. Almost simultaneously, his dad and grandma replied, Oh, no. Hmm. We eventually ascertained that I was comparing our relative status, Continue Reading
  • One and done?
    Today, my daughter went ice skating for the first time this winter and, as such, we had to dig out the bag with all the gear … including her now-two-sizes-too-small skates. Given how much they cost and how many times she actually wore them, Continue Reading
  • A paean to mistakes
    As many of you know, in addition to teaching financial literacy and money management classes, I also teach test prep for post-secondary education admission exams (i.e. for college and graduate school). While these two subjects may not, at first glance, seem to have much Continue Reading
  • Truth in blogging
    Remember when I laid out that scenario in which your fridge craps out? Look what I got to do today! I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with it, but since I am the spouse with the more, ahh, flexible schedule currently, I got to Continue Reading
  • Too easy
    I was in NYC this past weekend for a girls’ trip with two close friends from high school. Also, a haircut 😀! While we all have careers and children and responsibilities and other hallmarks of adulting, our get-togethers inevitably devolve at some point into Continue Reading
  • Oh, America
    Those of you who read the news—along with this blog, of course—may have seen headlines recently about the federal government shutdown, now in its third week. While the bulk of articles seem to be about a bunch of elected officials playing a game of Continue Reading
  • Movin’ on up
    Enough about NYC real estate! Let’s go to the LBYM mailbag for … an NYC real estate question. Dear LBYM: We’re apartment shopping in NYC (dear God, help us). In a shocking turn of events, it’s actually a buyers’ market here, with prices falling Continue Reading
  • Real estate, by the numbers
    As promised … numbers! Let’s say you bought a property for $325,000 with the land valued at $50,000 and the building valued at $275,000. You rent the property for $2,000 a month. How much rental income does your property produce each year? $24,000? Nope—that’s Continue Reading
  • The plot thickens
    You know those It Gets Better videos? You could take the same sentiment and apply it to owning real estate. My last post ended with my taking cold showers in an empty house. Did I mention I had no furniture? Having bought the house Continue Reading
  • A New York story
    I run a quick Net Worth check at the end of every quarter and this past Tuesday was no exception. The dismal performance of the stock market from October through December, though, meant that this was, for the most part, a rather depressing exercise. Continue Reading
  • Resolutions, Part 2
    I told you I make a lot of these. In case you missed them, here are the first five. The fun part of my list is I get to try them out and then, once Chinese New Year rolls around—February 5th this year—I’ll do Continue Reading
  • Resolutions, Part 1
    You know managing your money and managing your diet are basically the same thing, right? Hence, we’re probably all muddling through a season of discontent … what with the holiday hangover from too much spending and too much eating. Not to worry. New Year’s Continue Reading
  • A LBYM wish list
    Once in awhile, in a brief, fleeting moment of sheepish recognition, my kids will ask, What do you want for Christmas, Mom? My answer—unwavering fealty and obedience—never changes, but since my preferred presents are difficult to wrap, I offer to them, and to you, Continue Reading
  • New year, new(ish) you
    It’s the most wonderful time of the yeeeeeear! … sang no parent ever. Ugh. Not that you thought a website called Live Beneath Your Means was going to be a rollickin’ festival of sunshine, but I’m not going to lie—the holidays turn my kids Continue Reading
  • Keep it simple, sister
    It’s not always easy to be married to me. I may have once said something like this to my husband: OK—here’s the new credit card you will now use for everything. Except for Target. For Target, use that gift card I bought you. If Continue Reading
  • Receipts!
    Just a few more days until the 2018 finish line and no one’s leaning into the wind more than … my kids’ teachers. Let me take one minute at this very hectic time of year and tell them all how much I appreciate the Continue Reading
  • Big girls don’t whine
    Next up on the end-of-year LBYM to-do list … the 2019 budget. I know, I know. I harp on budgets a lot, huh? I’ll tell you what. Instead of a budget, we’ll call it a … budgie: Better? By now, you should have a Continue Reading
  • Fortune favors the old
    Let the countdown to New Year’s Day begin! While everyone else is distracted by eggnog and gingerbread, I’ll be sharpening my pencils, reviewing my financial figures, and setting goals and resolutions for next year. Huzzah! The end-of-year LBYM to-do list is long so let’s Continue Reading
  • Before you buy that gift card …
    I try not to buy gift cards. OK—not totally true. Once a year, for one day only, Target sells their gift cards at a 10% discount. I buy one card for the maximum total value you can purchase—$300—and email it to myself. I live Continue Reading
  • Budgets, Part 2
    A month’s worth of expenses … done! Congratulations, budding budgeteer. Now what? The first thing you should do is figure out which of the past 30 days’ expenses, if any, might fall within your shadow budget—once-a-year payments, a burst pipe, your cousin Becca’s no-kids Continue Reading
  • Just say no
    Remember when my mother-in-law was musing about the cost of her indulgent café breakfasts in Santa Fe? If you stayed with us until the end of our conversation, she would’ve gifted you this last gem: well, I don’t think I would go every day—it Continue Reading
  • Another kind of flexitarian
    Budget newbies! I see you’ve got almost a month’s worth of expenses in your little notebook there. Actual entry for me today—four deviled eggs and a packet of peanut butter sandwich crackers bought from a local butcher ($2.00). Why? ’Cause I was thrown out Continue Reading
  • How to save a million dollars
    My company is called Live Beneath Your Means but it might as well be called Live Without Dependents … ’cause that’s the easiest way to do it. I don’t even mean just the two-legged kind. I saw a friend over Thanksgiving who is an Continue Reading
  • Retirement or college?
    An age-old question, by way of reader mail … Dear LBYM: I’m in a career where my salary is probably going to at least keep up with inflation. After staying at home with our three girls, my wife is probably going to start earning Continue Reading
  • Tax time!
    When I’m not honing my negotiation skills with my four-year-old—yes, we brought a 10-inch snowball from home to nursery school today, but we did not transport it inside the car (yes! winning!)—or teaching GRE classes or bulk cooking … I read about taxes. What Continue Reading
  • Get more money
    Right before Thanksgiving, I was a featured speaker at the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day conference here in Wisconsin. Since I had just started a company focused on financial education for women, of course I spoke about … presentation skills. That’s right—I gave a presentation on Continue Reading
  • Looking for a great deal?
    Does anyone else feel bad for Giving Tuesday? After the lead up to Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving itself, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, that fun day at the airport when you get to buy your son a $2 banana from which he takes one bite and Continue Reading
  • Grateful
    It’s Thanksgiving time! If you’re anything like me, you’re beyond excited that New Year’s Day and your annual budget reset is just around the corner. If you’re not like me (i.e. you’re a laid-back, well-adjusted, and optimistic person), you’re probably eating beyond your means, Continue Reading
  • Eating well … on a budget
    I like food. A lot. Mmm … food. And it’s a big line item in the ol’ budget, as it probably is for you. That said, I just took a quick look back at budgets from years past, and I am aghast at what Continue Reading
  • Into the shadows
    I have a confession to make. I have two budgets. I don’t mean two (or five) versions of my budget that support, say, different financial goals. I mean I have two everyday budgets that I track my spending against. One contains all the routine Continue Reading
  • Long hair, don’t care
    Nobody believes me, but when we moved from New York City to Madison in 2013, our housing costs went up. A lot. The reasons for that had less to do with Madison—though the region does have a higher-than-average cost of living—and more to do Continue Reading
  • Get off the wheel
    How’s the expense tracking going 😀? As these 30 days go by and you’re jotting down items in your little notebook, let’s talk about the number one line item you want to excise from your monthly budget—credit card payments. Don’t get me wrong. Used Continue Reading
  • Check yo check
    In Budgets, Part 1, we talked about the what’s going out part of the budget equation. Let’s turn now to what’s coming in … your income. If you’re a salaried employee, this number is likely steady and predictable. Each pay period, your employer withholds Continue Reading
  • Budgets, Part 1
    So you’ve set some goals. You’ve calculated your Net Worth. Now what? Now you get to budget! That’s right—you get to budget. And no, I’m not going to call it a “spending plan” or some other euphemism. Budgeting is delightful. My favorite holiday is Continue Reading
  • To gift … or not to gift
    Today’s post comes from the mailbag—a reader question! That’s right, I have readers. And they have questions. Apparently about kid’s birthday gifts: Dear LBYM: What’s up with the “no gifts necessary” line that gets dropped in every kid’s birthday party invite? Every time I Continue Reading
  • I Heart Routine
    Routine gets a bad rap. As an adjective, it gets paired with “oil change” and “colonoscopy” while its fun, sexy cousin spontaneous gets paired with “road trip” and “combustion”. The dating website eHarmony conducted a study in 2016 and found “spontaneous” in the top Continue Reading
  • Health insurance … and what you can do about it
    On Halloween, I wrote about one big fat financial trick—companies sowing confusion and uncertainty around our choices. Best example ever? Health insurance. OK, I said I wasn’t scared. That isn’t totally true. Health insurance—buying it, paying for it, even being allowed to buy it—is Continue Reading
  • Boo!
    It’s Halloween. That wonderful holiday that combines all of my least favorite things—candy, the outdoors, fun. Luckily, we’ve divvied up the parenting duties so my husband takes the kids around the neighborhood and I take … oh, you know, scheduling, homework, paperwork, birthday parties, Continue Reading
  • Diets and money
    In 2005, I lost 30 pounds. I’ve kept the weight off for about 13 years now.  Some of you who’ve known me only as the “After” picture may be surprised by this. I would post a “Before” picture, but let’s go easy on young me—people Continue Reading
  • A message to young women
    I’m on the road this weekend at Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business’s annual Intercollegiate Business Convention for which I am a panelist speaking on … something completely unrelated to personal finance (alas). The event, now in its 13th year, draws over 1,000 young women Continue Reading
  • Net Worth
    So you didn’t win the lottery. Not surprisingly, neither did I. Which is why I’m pecking away at my computer and teaching my readers—hi, Mom!—about Net Worth. Net Worth is legit the best … assuming it’s a positive number. Net Worth is what you Continue Reading
  • How to BOGO
    Quick quiz, kids! When am I most likely to think, I am an effin’ genius? A) When I realize I can no longer afford to live in the neighborhood where the Brooklyn brownstone I bought in 2002 is located B) When I buy classroom Continue Reading
  • Lotto dreams
    Tuesday’s Mega Millions jackpot stands at a record $1.6 billion dollars. Billion. Despite agreeing with Ambrose Bierce’s contention that lotteries are “a tax on people who are bad at math,” even I’m tempted to buy a ticket or two when I see those nine Continue Reading
  • The hat
    I’ve had a blog for approximately one week now—not counting the decades in which I was perfecting my “scary-yet-strangely-approachable” tone—and already, so many misconceptions. Scene: Sidewalk in front of elementary school during morning drop-off Me: “It’s starting to smell like autumn, isn’t it?” Neighbor: Continue Reading
  • Really?
    OK! Let’s dive in. What’s this about living beneath your means? *rubs hands gleefully* Now, you might be thinking, “Why should I listen to you?” Don’t worry! I get asked this A LOT. See Exhibit A from this morning: Actually, you shouldn’t just listen Continue Reading
  • Hello, world!
    Welcome to Live Beneath Your Means, a blog and financial education and advocacy company that celebrates making $10 … and spending $9. And leftovers. Love leftovers. Which are basically the culinary version of the same idea. This way, I can write about my favorite Continue Reading