Category: Money
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Finances of flying
Pursuing a private pilot license demands a significant financial commitment, with costs including aircraft rental, instructor fees, study materials, headsets, an iPad for the ForeFlight app, along with other miscellaneous expenses such as an E6B flight computer and plotter. Careful planning and budgeting are essential to avoid going into debt…
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Why Everyone Needs a Financial Spreadsheet
In our experience, we have found that the single most important tool to achieve financial well-being is a financial spreadsheet. No matter what stage of life you’re in, it’s never too late to create a budget. Even if you have an above-average income, pay your bills on time, carry no…
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Flight booking strategies for our trip to Japan
In this blog post, we’re excited to share the research we did for flight bookings for our trip to Japan in March. We booked our tickets sometime in the middle of September, and cash value of the tickets in economy was already sky-rocketing — hovering around the low $2000s for a return…
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Logstics and Expense Report for Yellowstone & Grand Teton 7-day trip
Part 1 — Travel Preparation, Cost, and Planning Details Actual Dates of Travel: June 29, 2022 — July 6, 2022 We (28F, 32 M), together with the parents (~60-year-olds) went on a 7-day trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton NPs for the 4th of July weekend from the Twin Cities, MN. We started planning for…
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One year review of the Amex Gold
We recently reached the end of one year with one of our American Express Gold Card. In this review, we’ll break down how the card works, why it will have a place in our wallets despite the $250 annual fee, and how we’ve made the most of its perks in…
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Booking and Review of our Hyatt Place accommodation in Page, AZ
For our anniversary (which happens to fall around Labor day weekend), we wanted to go to Page, AZ, and nearby areas. Page is a popular long weekend destination for folks across the US. As we were planning for the Labor Day weekend, and looking for accommodation options in hotels or…
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What does responsible use of Credit Cards mean?
The total credit card debt in the US crossed the $ 1 trillion mark recently. The average interest rate for credit card debit is around 20%. For most individuals, responsibly utilizing a credit card entails paying off the full balance each month. However, we contend that this represents the baseline…
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The logistics of our Hawaii trip
After we got back from our 13-day trip to Hawaii, we got asked several questions about planning and budgeting for the trip. In this post, we will break down our planning and spending by categorizing our expenses into 5 buckets — Flights, Accommodation, Car rental and inter-island transfers, Food, and Activities. The…
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Beginning our journey toward financial independence
We (M 31, F 28) came to the US in 2016 and 2017 and graduated with our PhDs in 2021, and 2022 respectively. Nitin got his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and Sruthi got hers in Applied Physics. We have since then been in the industry working in Fortune 500 companies…
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Our Travel Philosophy
We think of travel as a component of our life journey. It is a means of exploration, a source of memories and experiences, and an opportunity to occasionally do something different from our everyday routines. For us, it feeds back positively into our lives and helps us become better at…
BabuSoge 