Blog | emily

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Jul 24
6 min

How to Avoid a Pandemic Spending Frenzy

Several weeks ago, after having spent 103 straight days with my family, I asked my husband to give me a list of errands that had gone und...

Emily Guy Birken

Jul 10
7 min

The Problem with Focus

For the last several months, my brain has been…mushy, for lack of a better word. I stare at empty Word documents, unable to start writing...

Emily Guy Birken

Jun 26
6 min

New Habits Learned in 2020 (So Far)

Not only has 2020 seemed to last at least a decade so far, but sometimes, it can also feel like there is no relief on the horizon. A comm...

Emily Guy Birken

Jun 12
9 min

Using the 5 Whys to Investigate Your White Allyship

While this blog is usually a place for discussing difficult financial questions, today I’m going to talk about how one of my financial to...

Emily Guy Birken

May 29
7 min

Consistency: The Simple-But-Not Easy Secret to Success

I like to think of myself as someone who is good at creating productive routines. And if by creating, you mean writing them out in elabor...

Emily Guy Birken

May 15
8 min

Beware the Three Shoulds

It seems like you can’t swing a sourdough starter these days without hitting some unwelcome hot take on how we all should be spending our...

Emily Guy Birken

May 1
6 min

Life is Not a Buffet

When I was a little girl, I very sincerely wanted to BE my big sister. Tracie was smart, cool, stylish, and calm, and she had some truly ...

Emily Guy Birken

Apr 24
5 min

Dealing With Too Much

There’s a chapter in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women wherein Marmee encourages all four girls to do whatever they want for several days,...

Emily Guy Birken

Apr 17
7 min

Change How You Think About Your Finances...with Tetris!

Worrying about money is one of America’s most popular pastimes even when things are normal. Add a global pandemic, stay-at-home orders, a...

Emily Guy Birken

Apr 10
11 min

What to Do When the Economy Comes Screeching to a Halt

If you spend any time in the financial corner of the internet, you’ll sometimes find yourself among the finger-wagging set who like to ex...

Emily Guy Birken

Apr 3
6 min

4 Ways You Can Improve Your Finances While Stuck at Home

Being at home for an extended period has led many people to some truly inventive and bizarre activities, from recreating famous works of ...

Emily Guy Birken

Mar 27
7 min

Patience, Extended Social Distancing, and Other Impossible Things

When I was a child, my mother liked to tell me I couldn’t be a doctor because I had no patience. (If you’re wondering where my puntastic ...

Emily Guy Birken

Mar 20
8 min

The Fed’s Interest Rates and Other Imaginary Friends

Here is a fact about finances that feels like it can’t possibly be true: Money doesn’t actually exist. Yeah, I know. Sounds crazy. But ev...

Emily Guy Birken

Mar 12
7 min

Calm Your Fears in 3 Simple Steps

One of my favorite book genres is historical fiction set in Victorian England. These books offer a strange kind of comfort, even though I...

Emily Guy Birken

Feb 14
7 min

What To Do With Your Tax Refund

This time of year has so much to recommend it: the weather is slowly warming (if you don’t happen to live in the arctic wilds of Wisconsi...

Emily Guy Birken

Feb 6
5 min

Living Mindfully When You Don't Like Where You Are

Two of the unhappiest years of my life were when I was teaching. During my first and third year of teaching, I had an extremely difficult...

Emily Guy Birken

Jan 31
6 min

How to Ask for a Raise

Last week, I wrote about how aligning your work priorities with those of your workplace can do wonders to help you feel more satisfied at...

Emily Guy Birken

Jan 24
8 min

Bringing Mindfulness to Work

I recently talked to two different women in my life who are stressed at work. In both cases, a combination of factors, including some wor...

Emily Guy Birken

Jan 17
10 min

The 5 Building Blocks of Mindful Financial Independence

Financial independence (and specifically the Financial Independence Retire Early or FIRE movement) has been in the news quite a bit latel...

Emily Guy Birken

Jan 10
8 min

5 Proven Ways to Live the Life of Your Dreams

Visualize for a moment that you have everything you want in your life. You feel fulfilled by your work, relaxed about your finances, and ...

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