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My Open Wallet: A Personal Finance Blog about Money and Life in New York
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An anonymous New Yorker tells the world how much money she earns, spends, and saves.
I am a 30-something single woman living in Brooklyn, NY. I write about how much money I make, what I spend it on, how much I save, how I budget, my home-buying experienc
Recent Posts Tagged With 'self-image'
An Avatar\'s Open Wallet
Here's an interesting concept: spending virtual dollars to live an online live that is much more luxurious than your real one: No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real YouIt may be raining pink slips, and some people may be hard-pressed to make the ...
Coping with a Pay Cut
A poignant article from the Times: Still on the Job, But at Half the Pay.The dark blue captain’s hat, with its golden oak-leaf clusters, sits atop a bookcase in Bryan Lawlor’s home, out of reach of the children. The uniform their father wears sti...
My Life in Transactions
The other night I had dinner with an old friend I'll call "Ace." We were really close back in college, then grew apart for a few years, but reconnected a few years ago and now have a great long distance friendship. Fortunately she comes to New York o...
More on Unemployment Benefits
After writing last week's post about unemployment benefits by state, I checked in with Mortimer to get his take on the subject, as he is still collecting unemployment himself. Here's what he had to say:Benefits don't change at all based on single/fam...
Bargain Betty
I was thinking the other day about a friend of mine from college, who we sometimes jokingly called Bargain Betty. She came from a very frugal family, and never seems to have felt any need to rebel against that aspect of her upbringing, as some might....
Is Eye Candy Always Expensive?
This post from The World of Wealth reminded me of something I'd been trying to write about a few months ago. First, an excerpt from MEG's post:It's been over a month since I joined my new upscale gym, and I have never looked back!It costs over $130 a...
What, Me Worry?
I've been blogging for almost 4 years now--during that time, I've not always been the most productive blogger, but I've gone through phases where I was full of ideas and I have well over 100 draft posts in various stages of completion, some dating ba...
Overheard at BookExpo
As usual, I attended Book Expo America this past weekend. I didn't have a chance to do much scouting for new personal finance books, but I did manage to score a free copy of Chris Anderson's new book, appropriately titled "Free: The Future of a Radic...
A Sad Tale, with Violins (Really)
Read this article, from the New York Times: At an Age for Music and Dreams, Real Life IntrudesHer name is Tiffany Clay and she is 18, with light brown hair tied in a ponytail and large eyes that always seem at the edge of tears. She has been on her o...
Respect for Money
One theme that emerged in the comments on my "Money Neurosis of the Week" post was that waiting for change of even one penny indicates that you have respect for your money. From the comments:... he credits that respectful approach to money as one of ...
New Mindsets for a New Economy: "Rectitude Chic"
In last weekend's Wall Street Journal, there was a column by Peggy Noonan called "Rectitude Chic." Here's a couple of paragraphs that got me thinking:For a generation we've been tapping on plastic keyboards, entering data into databases, inventing fi...
Origins of Family Money
How would you feel if your family had some money from somewhat dishonest origins?I was talking to a friend about her family background-- it's a fascinating story. One of her ancestors invented some sort of patent medicine and made a fairly large amou...
Monetary Mental Health
An interesting article from yesterday's New York Times, about the rise of "financial therapy."The two women, a global celebrity and a Wisconsin divorcee trying to climb out from under a pile of bills, sought help in the budding field of financial the...
