A Brave New World: Starting of a Personal Finance Blog

Welcome!

I wanted to use my first post on Our Personal Economy to talk about why I decided to start blogging, what I intend to write about, and everything in between. As I am writing this post I am in the middle of large life transitions which should make for some interesting future posts. Right now, I am finishing up my Master's degree, I'm in the middle of a "career" hunt, and I am getting married to my lovely fiance in September! I told you there would be a lot to talk about.

So why did I start Our Personal Economy? Well I would have to say that I have always been careful with money and my Dad always encouraged me to save when I was a child. But, within the past year I have really ramped up my interest in personal finance topics. I think it was spurred by the realization that I would be entering the workforce soon, had student loans to pay-off, and I would have to care for my new family. Luckily, my thesis advisor/mentor was quite the personal finance whiz himself and had a small library of books that I could borrow. I also took to Twitter as a resource to supplement and hasten my education. Inspired by the content of several blogs and realizing I had several blog-worthy topics going on in my life I decide to start my own blog. I have no background in web design, computer programming....nothin. So, I decided starting with a simple Blogger account would be a great place to start.

So why the name Our Personal Economy? As an economics enthusiast I like to make connections between our textbook understanding of economics and how it conveys to our personal life. We all have supply and demands, our own monetary policies, deficits, surpluses, and interest rates so on and so forth, which influences how we spend and allocate our money. I like to take a microscope to the financial decisions in my life and I intend on using actual numbers and calculations in my posts as opposed to general advice. 

A little background. I was born and raised in a small town in Kentucky and lived the typical American life. Upon going to college I quickly realized I didn't have the engineering mindset I thought I had and switch my major after the first year. I still was able to finish a four-year degree in four years (not a common as you would think) with a dual-degree in Leadership Studies and Political Science. I also picked up a minor in Agricultural Economics which spurred my interest in economics and agriculture. (Side note: I am part of the first generation in my family to grow up off the farm, but we still own several acres in my home county). With the global financial crisis raging at graduation, I decided to pursue my new found passion into graduate school (more details to come in a future post).

What's next? Now that school is wrapping up we are looking for jobs and trying to figure out where we are headed in life. In the future I'll be covering topics like my student loan strategies, making an actual income, starting to invest, taking on retirement, buying a house, being frugal, and whatever else comes up. I'm looking forward to covering a variety of topics as we make this life transition and I'm look forward to everyone's comments and advice.