On our 20th episode (happy 20th everyone!), we discuss possibilities for naming our house (and how this is harder than naming our kids). We also talk about fun things coming up (our anniversary day date) and sad things coming up (our ‘soul’ couple is moving away from us).

In money, we chat about house painting and other expenses. But we also celebrate the fact that our little home town, Gilbert AZ, is THE BEST PLACE TO LIVE IF YOU WANT TO SAVE MONEY!! (Clearly, this is due to our presence in the town…and maybe a teensy bit with cost of living). And Kelsey opens up shop on her creative coaching side business!

We also run through the fun exercise of how we’d spend $100, $1000, $10,000, $100,000, or $1,000,000. It’s super fun to pretend to spend money you don’t have (instead of actually spending money you don’t have, which, you know, leaves you debt-ridden).

Finally, we tackle a listener question about dealing with irregular expenses month-to-month as well as student loans. And we discuss our ‘big things,’ including dinner with Michael Pollan…and dinner with each other!

(Note: Chris is shown here lovingly embraced by the noted author.)

In this episode, we chat about potty training philosophy and how exciting it is to get a kid into underwear for the first time! We also discuss some of our favorite marriage tips for keeping our relationship healthy while pursuing our careers (and our children…usually down the street). It's all about strategic planning, and maybe even having a written document describing what an ideal life would look like.

In money, Kelsey has been working to track expenses after realizing that entertainment dollars were flowing a bit too freely in recent months. Chris obsessed for a week over whether to take advantage of rising home prices by selling the house and renting. One of Kelsey's thoughtful friends offered some great advice. One of Chris's internet pretend friends also offered some good advice. The question remains unresolved.

We also address a couple of listener questions. One listener asked about ethical investing, whether we try to do this, and how one might go about it if one was interested. Kelsey recommends a strategy based on Peter Singer's interesting book, The Most Good You Can Do. Another listener asked about the mechanics of our day-to-day budgeting. We discuss.

Finally, in One Big Thing, Kelsey describes how rich she actually is (in friends). Chris talks about one of his favorite life-advice web pages on the internets. Ooh, and check out this great story if you're wondering how index funds stack up to other options.

In our most recent episode, we discuss just how low we can go in our various accounts (hair-raisingly low, it turns out, which is inevitable when you budget down to the dollar!). Chris regales with the story of his most recent illness…the actual friggin' flu.

In money, Kelsey talks about her socialization habit and how to control its associated expenses (it's all about accountability, and we keep ourselves on the straight and narrow with Mint.com). Chris covers the importance of dispassionate investing, in particular avoiding the urge to try to 'time the market.'

And, we cover another featured listener. This great case study is a lovely family from Vermont working to control expenses, pay down debt, and launch a personal business. Some great goals here!

Finally, in One Big Thing, Kelsey revels in normalcy while Chris chats about his favorite life philosophy: healthy defaults.

In this episode, Kelsey and Chris discuss – guess what – toddlers who do not sleep well! And so, once again, we crowd-source our parenting and hope for further tips from our listeners on just what the hell to do.

In life these days, Kelsey is obsessed with habits, which makes sense as she is a creature of them. And she's reading a really thought-provoking book on personality traits that might lend themselves (or not) to habit formation. The book, Better than Before, is by Gretchen Ruben, and includes a personality test you can take yourselves! Follow this link to do so. Turns out Kelsey is an Upholder, and Chris is…confused.

In money, we chat about our experiments with Capital One online accounts. And, we offer our first featured listener review!! Our first brave soul is a hard-working woman in NYC who is trying to balance spending in the big city, work demands, and some important savings goals. 

Lastly, Kelsey and Chris discuss their one big thing. For Kelsey, it's her Zen Desk. And for Chris, it's actually one big question for our listeners!

On this episode, Kelsey and Chris rationalize hiring a service to clean the house once per month. We chat about Kelsey's raise and our tax return (yes, we've filed and received our return because we're a wee bit crazy) and what we decided to do with that money. And, we talk about our 2016 financial summit, our financial outlook for the year, the big expenses coming up and how we're balancing that with our aggressive savings goals.

We also discuss a great listener question about whether to increase voluntary contributions to a 401K or to spend extra money on paying down a car loan or mortgage.

Finally, in One Big Thing, Kelsey talks exercise and Chris suggests you should begin before you're ready.

 

 

 

In this episode, we talk about the ‘determined orange of positivity’ and its importance to our relationship. We also review the amazing run of non-kid outings we’ve had, including breweries, 80’s cover bands and some inappropriate dancing.

Because it’s the beginning of the year, we also dig into our overall finances from 2015, including our gross and net earnings, our overall spending, and our savings rates (as always, we share all our real numbers). Chris covers some of the specifics of our spending, and you can see the rest of our expenses below as they compare to 2014 expenses. [Note: 2014 ‘Education’ looks like a mistake, but it’s not because that was the year we knocked out all of Kelsey’s student loans. Similarly, 2015 ‘Financial’ looks out of whack, but that’s the category that notes our saving towards our mortgage, roughly $20,500 last year.]

We respond to a listener question about balancing savings goals with house projects and upgrades. Kelsey describes her strategy for identifying which projects ought to get done and when. Chris notes that upgrades certainly not out of the question as long as they don’t run afoul of one’s ‘holy’ savings plan.

Finally, we discuss our one big thing. For Chris, it’s the idea that to a great extent, attitude = wealth. For Kelsey, it’s the possibility of painting an awesome phrase on our back fence that we could see from our house every day. We are looking for a phrase that is uplifting and reflective of thankfulness. We’d love any listener recommendations! Send ’em our way at heymatrimoney@gmail.com