Grace Pomroy
Stuck in a Season of Waiting

Lately I feel like I’ve been stuck in a season of waiting. My husband and I have been dreaming of putting down roots in the Pacific Northwest since the first time we visited Oregon seven years ago. While we are just months away from making that goal a reality – we hope to buy a house sometime this summer – we are still in transition. In addition to waiting as we search for the right house, I spent the fall waiting to get an appointment with a doctor about a health concern I was dealing with, spent the winter waiting for medical tests, and am now spending the spring waiting to fully recover from surgery.

Stuck in a Season of Waiting
Grace Pomroy
How to Handle a Big Income Gap in Your ...

It’s not uncommon for couples to have an income gap between partners – in fact, it's the norm. According to data from Morning Consult and Insider, nearly three-quarters of Americans reported they had some income imbalance with their partner before they started dating. And while that imbalance can flip-flop as partners change jobs or receive a raise or bonus, at times it can be significant. This might happen when one partner retires, decides to go back to school, or opts to stay at home with the kids. This might also happen when one partner gets a big promotion or receives a large inheritance. How can you manage your finances so this imbalance in income doesn’t throw your relationship off balance? Consider these steps:

How to Handle a Big Income Gap in Your Relationship
Grace Pomroy
My 6 Favorite Money Psychology Hacks

I’m a big fan of the Financial Feminist podcast. A few weeks ago the host, Tori Dunlap, shared a money hack that she had heard about from another financial educator on Science Finance: Before making an impulse purchase, ask yourself: “How many ‘taco dollars’ does it cost?” That particular financial educator really loved tacos, so he judged each purchase by asking, “How many tacos could I buy for the cost of that item?” Concert tickets: 20 tacos. Cupcake: 1 taco. Fancy hotel stay: 83 tacos. Then, he would ask himself: “Is it really worth that many tacos?”

My 6 Favorite Money Psychology Hacks
Grace Pomroy
The Power of the Icebreaker (Part 2)

My last post on things that can jumpstart your financial life in 5 minutes or less got me thinking  about one of the most effective steps I ever took during our marriage: asking my husband an icebreaker question about our life together. That word icebreaker is key: these are questions designed to get conversation going, not shut it down. And that means the question has to be open-ended and asked with a spirit of genuine curiosity of learning what your partner thinks.

The Power of the Icebreaker (Part 2)
Grace Pomroy
Welcome "The Earner" Money Personality

Long-time readers of this blog are familiar with the four money personalities I discuss: the giver, the saver, the spender, and the acquirer. Over time, though, I’ve learned that while people tend to understand the first three, they often stumble over the last one. On first blush, people generally thought the “acquirer” referred to someone who liked to accumulate or collect things. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The acquirer was someone focused on how money came into their life, not what was done with the money after it was received. 

Welcome "The Earner" Money Personality

COVID-19

One Year Later

One Year Later

I still can’t believe it’s been a year. In some ways it feels like just yesterday that the lock-downs started, and in other ways it feels like 10 years ago. In the last year, we’ve learned a lot about our personal finances, our economy, our community, our physical health, our mental health, our government system, and the threads of systemic injustice running through it all. Now that things are beginning to look a little brighter again, I hope we can resist the temptation to stuff the unprocessed experiences and learnings from this year away in favor of just “getting back to normal.” Instead, what we’ve learned can help us shape a brighter future for everyone, not just those in positions of privilege.

Our Recipe to Maximize a Financial Windfall

Our Recipe to Maximize a Financial Windfall

Have you ever received a tax refund, stimulus check, bonus, or any other financial windfall, and since you weren’t sure what to do with it, you just let it sit in your checking account until it slowly drained away? Guilty! No matter how well you manage your money, letting a financial windfall sit in checking is the best way to see it disappear and you likely won’t have any idea where it went. Eek! I know you have big goals you’re working toward and any financial windfall can bring you one step closer to bringing those goals to life.

What can a $1,400 stimulus check do for your financial life?

What can a $1,400 stimulus check do for your financial life?

A few weeks ago personal finance guru and creator of “Financial Peace University” Dave Ramsey said during an interview with Fox News: “I don’t believe in a stimulus check, because if $600 or $1,400 changes your life, you were pretty much screwed already.” He later went on to say, “You have a career problem, you have a debt problem, you have a relationship problem, you have a mental health problem — something else is going on if $600 changes your life.”

5 Startling Facts about Pandemic Finances

5 Startling Facts about Pandemic Finances

Anyone else remember early March like it was just yesterday? Our lives have been stuck in low gear for months. While my husband and I have certainly tried to make the best of a terrible situation, it’s likely our best memories of 2020 will be those from the first quarter of the year. While I had certainly hoped we would be back to our “regular” lives again by now, instead we’re watching things continue to get worse.

Food, Food, Food

Food, Food, Food

Anyone else feeling the weight of the higher than normal grocery bills? While we may not be spending as much money on gas, travel, or entertainment, we are still spending money on food. We strive to find the best way to make nutritious meals that take as few groceries as possible so we can limit our trip, and that has proven to be challenging, at least for us. As someone who usually takes pleasure in the entire process from planning meals to picking out ingredients to making the meals each night I quickly realized I had to shift my mindset. I couldn’t buy groceries the same way I used to do – dependent on having all the ingredients to make the meal “just right.” I’ve had to be more flexible. I’ve also had to shift my focus from making meals we love (and I feel like making) to focusing on meals that use rely on pantry staples and use as few ingredients as possible. It brought me back to my days in graduate school when I had a very tight grocery budget and I had to weigh whether or not each item was really worth it.

How COVID-19 Might Be Impacting Your Finances & How to Get Some Relief

How COVID-19 Might Be Impacting Your Finances & How to Get Some Relief

As we’ve all seen over the last few weeks, the financial impact of COVID-19 has already been significant. While we certainly could look at the global or national perspective, today I want to focus on how COVID-19 might be impacting you personally and particularly how you can get some help. Please refer this blog post to anyone you know who might need financial relief.